GIFT    OF 
JANE  K.SATHER 


THE    PURITAN    AGE 


MASSACHUSETTS 


THE 


PURITAN  AGE  AND  KULE 


IN    THE 


Colon?  of  t^e 


1629—1685 


BY 


GEORGE    E.  ELLIS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 
Ktoeretoe  Press,  (ZDamfcrttige 

1888 


•- 


Copyright,  1888, 
BY   GEORGE  E.  ELLIS. 


* 


SHmbersttg 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE. 


PREFACE. 


THE  Preface  of  a  book  is  usually  that  part  of  it  which  is 
the  last  to  be  written,  and  the  first  to  be  read.  The  author 
makes  use  of  it  to  supply  any  possible  oversight  in  his 
pages  in  the  statement  of  his  purpose,  or  to  anticipate 
any  misapprehension  of  it.  The  reader  turns  to  it  with 
a  view  to  find  in  it  a  brief  and  comprehensive  exposition 
of  the  design  of  the  book,  and  the  reason  why  it  has  been 
written  and  put  forth.  A  few  words  here  may  answer 
both  these  intents. 

The  author  some  half  century  ago  began  the  reading 
of  our  local  history  in  the  then  most  recently  published 
volumes  which  dealt  with  it.  From  these  he  read  back 
through  the  many  books  which  had  preceded  them,  till, 
having  favorable  opportunities  for  so  doing,  he  found  his 
way  to  many  of  the  original  and  primary  sources  of  it  in 
print  and  manuscript.  It  may  safely  be  affirmed  that 
proportionally  more  pages  have  been  written  and  put  into 
print  concerning  the  early  history  of  Massachusetts  — 
including  the  Commonwealth,  the  municipalities  which 
constitute  it,  the  incidents  and  events,  the  men  and  the 
institutions  identified  with  it  —  than  those  concerning  any 
other  like  portion  of  the  earth's  territory.  And  to  this 
mass  of  written  and  printed  literature  we  must  add  the 


325072 


PREFACE. 


larger  mass  of  ephemeral  matter  which  has  simply  been 
spoken,  to  be  remembered  or  forgotten.  This  community 
is  generally  regarded  as  acceding  to  the  repute  of  the 
ancient  Athens  in  its  interest  to  hear  news,  with  the 
additional  proclivity  for  delivering  and  listening  to  oratory. 
Our  abounding  commemorations  and  celebrations,  historic 
and  festive,  have  furnished  themes  from  our  early  annals, 
in  prose  and  poetry.  Alike  in  our  digested  histories  and 
in  these  ephemeral  utterances  there  is  a  large  variety  in 
the  qualities  of  accuracy,  fidelity,  good  sense,  and  judg 
ment,  as  well  as  of  good  taste  and  candor.  Nor  are  there 
lacking  tokens  of  superficial  knowledge  and  flightiness  of 
mind  and  pen  in  gibes  and  satires  which  may  amuse  but 
which  do  not  instruct.  But  having  in  view  all  these  con 
tributions  to  our  information  about  our  early  annals,  we 
may  say  that  our  knowledge  is  full,  if  not  exhaustive, 
and  that  there  is  a  general  consent  in  judgment,  among 
all  intelligent  and  fair-minded  persons,  as  to  the  harsh 
ness,  austerity,  intolerance,  and  repulsive  features  of  the 
earliest  legislation  and  administration  of  government  by 
the  founders  of  Massachusetts.  No  right-minded  and 
right-hearted  person  of  our  time  would  attempt  to  reverse 
that  judgment.  But  some  may  find  in  the  motives  and 
principles  of  the  responsible  parties  an  integrity  and  sin 
cerity  of  purpose,  and  in  the  stage  of  political  and  religious 
development  on  the  way  to  something  larger  and  better  at 
which  wise  and  good  men  then  rested,  an  explanation  of 
much  that  cannot  be  approved  or  justified. 

It  is  in  the  original  documentary  sources  of  our  early 
history,  written  by  those  who  made  that  history,  not  in 
even  the  best  digests  and  compends  of  it,  that  we  are 
brought  into  the  most  communicative  relations  with  the 


PREFACE.  Vll 

founders  and  early  legislators  of  our  Commonwealth. 
There  we  learn  from  themselves  their  motives  and  prin 
ciples,  in  the  matters  in  which  they  are  most  at  variance 
with  the  light  and  advancement  to  which  we  have  attained. 
The  historic  judgment  passed  upon  these  austere  and 
arbitrary  rulers  is  expressed  in  the  two  familiar  statements, 
—  that  they  sought  liberty  of  conscience  for  themselves 
and  denied  it  to  others ;  and  that  they  exiled  themselves 
to  escape  persecution  for  their  religious  beliefs  and  prac 
tices,  and  then  proceeded  to  persecute  all  who  questioned 
or  opposed  their  own  principles.  It  was  not  till  I  had 
carefully  read  and  reflected  upon  their  own  autograph 
documents  above  referred  to,  —  letters,  journals,  and  public 
records, — that  I  was  made  to  realize  to  what  qualifications 
those  statements  must  be  subjected  in  order  to  be  true  to 
them  and  true  to  us.  It  is  exactly  and  precisely  in  the 
difference  of  meaning  and  interpretation  which  those  state 
ments  have  for  us,  and  which  they  would  have  had  to  those 
exiles,  that  we  are  to  find,  —  not  the  justification  nor  the 
palliation,  but  the  explanation  of  their  course  as  in  their 
view  a  righteous  one.  "  Liberty  of  conscience,"  in  the  full 
significance  and  range  which  the  phrase  covers  for  us,  was 
never  claimed  or  exercised  by  our  early  Puritans.  They 
held  in  supreme  dread  what  it  stood  for  in  their  time. 
The  spiritual  and  mental  liberty  which  they  demanded 
and  employed,  was  a  right  and  duty  to  release  themselves 
from  all  humanly  imposed  authority  in  religion,  and  all 
indulgence  of  their  own  devices  and  inclinations,  in  order- 
that  they  might  put  themselves  directly  under  the  Divine 
rule  found  in  "  the  Word  of  God."  Then,  as  to  escaping 
persecution  for  themselves  and  inflicting  it  on  others,  the 
following  pages  will  abundantly  offer  us  their  plea,  alike 


viii  PREFACE. 

justifying  their  self-exile  from  England  and  their  admin 
istration  here.  The  constraints,  disabilities,  and  penalties 
from  which  they  sought  to  release  themselves  were  all  of 
human  device  and  imposition.  Whether  Papal  or  Prelati- 
cal,  these  ecclesiastical  impositions  and  exactions  were,  as 
they  believed,  wholly  without  warrant.  They  were  tradi 
tions,  priestly  conceits,  and  inventions,  mingled  with  false 
hoods,  frauds,  and  superstitions,  ensnaring  conscience  and 
violating  individual  rights  and  freedom,  planting  them 
selves  between  God  and  the  direct  approach  of  his  chil 
dren  to  him.  Turning  from  all  these  human  devices  and 
obstructions,  the  Puritan  committed  himself  to  a  Book 
which  Papists  and  Prelatists,  with  himself,  professed  to 
believe  and  accept  as  of  Divine  authority, — "the  Word  of 
God."  The  Puritans  argued  that  it  could  not  be  wrong 
to  obey  God  rather  than  men.  Putting  themselves  under 
the  authority  of  that  Book,  as  revealing  "  the  laws,  stat 
utes,  and  ordinances  of  God,"  the  Puritans  persuaded  them 
selves  that  there  was  also  no  wrong  in  holding  all  under 
their  government  to  obedience  to  it ;  for  "  the  government 
was  God's,  not  theirs." 

My  aim  in  the  following  pages  is  to  set  forth  with  more 
fulness  and  method  than  I  have  met  with  elsewhere  the 
motives  of  estrangement  and  grievance  which  prompted 
the  exile  of  the  Puritans  to  this  Bay,  and  the  grounds  on 
which  they  proceeded  to  exercise  their  severe  and  arbitrary 
rule  here.  The  points  to  be  chiefly  emphasized  in  this  his 
toric  exposition  are  these :  the  relations  of  the  Puritans,  as 
Nonconformists,  to  the  Church  of  England  at  the  period  of 
its  reformation  and  reconstruction  in  the  transition  from 
the  Papacy  to  Protestantism ;  the  peculiar  estimate  of  and 
way  of  using  the  Bible,  characteristic  of  the  Puritans  under 


PREFACE.  ix 

the  critical  circumstances  of  the  time  which  had  substi 
tuted  the  Book  for  the  authority  of  the  Papal  and  the  Pre- 
latical  Church ;  their  finding  in  that  book  the  pattern  and 
basis  for  a  wholly  novel  form  of  government  in  civil  and 
religious  affairs,  with  an  equally  novel  condition  of  citizen 
ship  ;  their  attempt  at  legislation  and  administration  on 
theocratic  principles  ;  and  the  discomfiture  of  their  scheme 
as  involving  injustice,  oppression,  and  intolerance. 

The  reader  will  find  throughout  the  volume,  and  espe 
cially  on  pages  525,  536-538,  with  what  strength  and  ex- 
plicitness  of  statement  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts 
urged  the  religious  motives  of  their  scheme  and  enter 
prise.  These  earnest  and  plaintive  utterances  were  called 
forth  in  their  painful  struggle  to  preserve  the  Charter, 
which  they  believed  covenanted  to  them  the  rights  they 
had  exercised.  They  say  to  the  king  that  they  are  ready 
to  comply  with  his  Majesty's  demands  for  altering  their 
laws,  "  except  such  as  the  repealing  whereof  will  make  us  to 
renounce  the  professed  cause  of  our  first  coming  hither." 

MARCH,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

BOSTON,  AND  PUBLIC  MEETINGS. 
PAGES  1-44. 

Boston  settled.  Capital  of  Massachusetts.  Meetings  there.  Its 
original  Area  and  Features.  Changes  in  them.  Changes  in  Popu 
lation.  Domestic  and  Social  Qualities  and  Habits.  Recent  Foreign 
Elements.  Simplicity  and  Integrity  of  its  early  Municipal  Gov 
ernment.  Changes  in  the  Country  Towns  of  Massachusetts.  Pu 
ritan  Legislation  on  the  Sabbath.  Modern  Statutes  upon  it.  The 
Founders  of  Massachusetts.  Their  Religious  Aims  and  Motives. 

^  A  Novel  Basis  for  Government  and  Citizenship.  An  Ideal  Com 
monwealth  administered  by  the  Bible.  Severity  of  Rule  and  Dis- 

v>  cipline.  John  Winthrop  the  Master  Spirit.  His  Elevated  and 
Noble  Character.  His  Virtues  and  Services.  Criticisms  upon  him. 
His  Death  and  Funeral.  Tribute  of  the  General  Court  to  him. 
Taken  as  the  Exponent  of  the  Aims  of  his  Associates.  Historical 
Judgments  upon  their  Spirit  and  Administration.  The  Claims  of 
Truth  and  Candor.  Liberty  of  Conscience,  how  understood.  A 
Biblical  Commonwealth  or  Theocracy.  Restraints  upon  Individual 

u  Liberty;  Domestic  and  Social  Life.  Trial  of  their  Scheme.  Treat 
ment  af  Dissenters.  Stages  in  the  Progress  of  Liberal  Principles. 
Fanaticism  and  Enthusiasm  displaced  by  Rationalism,  the  Effect 
not  necessarily  leading  to  Indifference,  Laxity,  and  Degeneracy. 


THE  GOVERNOR  AND  COMPANY  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 
PAGES  45-62. 

Charter  and  Territory  of,  as  a  Trading  Company.  Members  of  it. 
Endicott  at  Salem,  1628.  Cradock,  Governor.  TrjjisJer_ofjCharter 
and  Government  here.  Alleged  Illegality  of  the  Measure.  "Gen 
eral  Considerations  "  for  the  Plantation.  Design  for  a  "  Particular 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Church."  Meeting  at  Cambridge.  Original  Subscriber  to  Agree 
ment  for  Emigration.  John  Winthrop  made  a  Member  of  the 
Company,  and  Governor.  Mims^rs'maHe'TTeemeri,  for  Religious 
Motives.  Winthrop's  Correspondence  and  Preparations  to  embark. 
The  Fleet.  Tender  Leave-taking  of  the  English  Church.  The 
Charge  of  Insincerity  in  it.  Higginson's  Leave-taking.  The  Voy 
age  begins.  |Winthrop's  Address  on  the  Passage.  The  Covenant 
with  God  and  each  other.  Arrival.  Formation  of  the  First 
Church,  after  Congregational  Model.  Covenant  and  Organization. 
Nonconformists,  but  not  Separatists.  Alleged  Inconsistency  in 
Proceedings. 

III. 

THE  NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  ^ 
PAGES  63-124. 

Puritans  distinguished  between  Nonconformists  and  Separatists.  The 
Difference  denned.  (Pririciples  ot  the  Puritans^  Misrepresentations. 
Their  Early  Appearance  and  Influence  at  the  Reformation.  The 
Church  of  England  with  a  Lay  Head.  The  Growth  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  Slow,  Impeded,  Inconstant,  and  Arrested  Progress  of 
the  Reformation.  The  Rooted  Power,  Dominancy,  and  Sway  of 
the  Papal  Church.  Formative  Period  of  the  English  Church.  The 
Early  Puritans  ;  their  High  Position,  Character,  Influence,  and 
Aims.  Discordances  among  the  Bishops.  Violent  Changes  in 
Government  in  Successive  Reigns.  Henry  VIII.  Versatijity  of 
the  English  People.  The  Undefined  Standard  and  Degree  of 
Reformation  and  Reconstruction.  Substitute  for  the  Papal  Church. 
/The  Puritans  plant  themselves  strictly  upon  the  Scriptural  Model 
[for  the  Church,  repudiating  Tradition  and  Sacerdotalism.  The 
kPuritans  and  the  Bible.  The  Laity  first  asserting  their  Claims. 
Lectureships  and  Conferences.  Puritan  View  of  a  Church.  Denial 
of  a  Threefold  Order  in  the  Ministry.  The  Scripture  Office  of 
Deacons.  Protests  against  Lord  Bishops  and  a -Hierarchy.  The 
Parity  of  the  Ministry.  Apostolical  Succession .  "  Trifenor  Clergy. ' ' 
Edward  VI.,  Mary,  Elizabeth,  James  I.  Modern  Recognition  of 
Puritan  Principles  by  Divines  of  the  English  Church.  Modern 
Scheme  for  "Christian  Unity."  Stages  of  the  Reformation. 
Bible  and  Services  in  English.  Form  of  Baptism.  Puritan  "  Scru 
ples."  Nonconformity.  The  Rise  of  Sects,  Enthusiasts  and  Fa 
natics.  The  Puritan  Scholars  who  came  to  New  England.  Objec 
tions  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Saints'  Days  and  Holy  days 
condemned  by  Cranmer.  Puritan  Objections  to.  "  Liberty  of 


CONTENTS.  xiii 


Conscience."  fMassacJiiisetts  PuritanisfflT^ines  of  Division  in 
Institution  and  Worship.  Strengthened  Prejudices  and  Alienations. 
The  English  State  Church  and  Dissenters.  The  Reconciliations  of 
Time  and  Liberalism. 

IV. 

THE  PURITANS  AND  THE  BIBLE. 
PAGES  125-166. 

The  Bible.  Puritanism  founded  upon  it.  Relations  between  them. 
"  The  Word  of  God."  The  Reformation  substituted  the  Bible  for 
the  Authority  and  Uses  previously  served  by  the  Church.  The 
Consequences  of  this.  The  Bible  breaks  the  Sway  of  the  Priest 
hood.  Laymen  come  to  their  Rights.  The  Bible  secondary  in  the 
Papal  Church.  The  Bible  in  the  Westminster  Confession.  The 
Bible  introduces  Democracy  in  Church  and  State.  Claims  made 
for  the  Bible.  Assumptions  and  Overestimates.  Results  from 
these.  Accord  in  Belief  made  impossible.  Right  of  Private  Judg 
ment.  Inspiration.  Labor  of  Apologists,  Expositors,  and  Com 
mentators.  Attempt  at  Revision.  Change  in  the  Estimate  of  the 
Bible.  The  Puritan  Conception  of  God.  The  Puritan  or  West 
minster  Creed  digested  from  the  Bible.  The  Teachings  of  that 
Creed.  The  Severity  and  Cruelty  taught  by  that  Creed.  Stern 
Sincerity~oT~the  Puritan  Belief.  Reduced  Views  of  the  Bible. 
Logic  of  Calvinism.  "  Progressive  Theology."  Puritan  Covenant. 
Puritan  Diaries.  Puritan  Prayers  and  Worship.  Fasts  and  Thanks 
givings.  The  Bible  in  the  Puritan  Household,  f 

V. 

THE  BIBLICAL  COMMONWEALTH. 
PAGES  167-199. 

Basis  of  Government  of  the  Founders  of  Massachusetts.  The  Will 
and  Law  of  God  revealed  in  a  Book.  Records  of  the  Government. 
Ideal  Schemes  of  Society  and  Commonwealths.  The  Massachusetts 
Theocracy.  Mormonism.  Divine  Obligations  imposed.  Plan  of 
the  Puritan  Commonwealth.  The  Old  Testament  rather  than  the 
New.  '"The  Statutes,  Laws,  and  Ordinances  of  God."  Politics  of 
Puritanism.  A  Theocracy.  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion  and 
Philosophy.  Method  of  Revelation.  Theophanies  and  Inspira 
tions.  Reformers.  Severity  of  the  JEuritan  Rule.  Illustrations 
of  Biblical  Legislation.  The  Magistrates  "  Ministers  of  God." 
The  Laity  and  the  Clergy.  The  "Elders"  subordinate.  Their 
Functions  and  Influence.  "  Moses  His  Judicials."  Laws. 


CONTENTS. 


VI. 

CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  AND  THE  FRANCHISE. 
PAGES  200-227. 

Membership  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company.  Admission  of  Free 
men.  Church  Membership  the  Condition.  Numbers  of,  admitted. 
Remonstrance**  and  Vindication.  The  Freeman's  Oath.  The 
Churches  to  consist  of  "  Saints."  Method  for  Membership.  Bap 
tism,  Religious  Experience.  Admission.  Covenant.  Discipline. 
Admonition.  Excommunication.  The  Court  interferes  with  the 
Independence  of  Churches.  Compulsory  Support  of  Religion. 
Form  of  Church  Government.  Dread  of  Presby terianism .  Synod 
at  Cambridge.  Religious  Legislation.  Proceedings  against  Heresy. 
Sabbath  Laws. 

VII. 

ADMINISTRATION  UNDER  THE  CHARTER. 
PAGES  228-266. 

Charter  Rights  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company.  Conflicting 
Views  on.  Claims  of  the  Court.  Exercise  of  Authority.  Legal 
or  Inferential  Rights.  Rights  assumed  in  Legislation.  Clearing 
the  Territory.  Granting  Privileges.  Banishment.  Legislation  in 
Virginia.  Population  of  Massachusetts.  The  Hudson  Bay  Com 
pany's  Charter.  Governor  Winthrop  on  the  Massachusetts  Charter. 
Rights  of  the  Colonists  as  Englishmen.  Legal  Opinion  on  Rights 
conferred  by  the  Charter.  The  Members  of  the  Company  Partners 
and  Owners.  Colony  Records  and  Town  Histories.  Massachusetts 
Municipalities.  Public  Schools.  The  College.  Legislation  on 
Intoxicating  Liquors ;  on  Apparel.  Sumptuary  Laws. 


VIII. 

THE  BANISHMENT  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS. 
PAGES  267-299. 

Character  and  Fame  of  Roger  Williams.  His  Career.  His  Biogra 
phers.  Early  Life.  A  Separatist.  Declines  to  be  Teacher  of 
Boston  Church.  Not  a  Freeman.  Called  to  Salem  Church.  In 
terference  of  the  Magistrates.  Williams  goes  to  Plymouth.  His 
Repute  there.  Returns  to  Salem.  His  "  Large  Book  in  Quarto" 


CONTENTS.  XV 

on  the  Patent.  The  Magistrates  Peruse  it,  and  Object  to  it.  His 
Criticism  of  the  Patent.  The  Rights  of  the  Indians.  Claims  to 
Sovereignty.  Williams  consents  to  burn  his  Book.  He  again 
stands  by  it.  He,  with  Endicott,  mutilates  the  King's  Colors.  The 
Magistrates  again  interpose.  Williams  refuses  the  Resident's 
Oath.  Summoned  before  the  General  Court.  Charges  against 
him.  The  Town  and  the  Church  of  Salem  offended  by  the  Temper 
of  the  Court.  Williams  resents  the  Treatment  of  his  Church,  by 
writing  "  Letters  of  Defamation "  to  the  other  Churches.  The 
Elders  remonstrate  effectively  with  the  Salem  Church.  Williams, 
in  Displeasure,  withdraws  from  it.  He  becomes  a  "  Gome-outer," 
and  holds  a  separate  service.  The  Court  sentences  him  to  Banish 
ment.  His  Private  Withdrawal.  His  Parting  with  Winthrop. 
"  In  the  Wilderness."  Befriended  by  the  Indians.  At  Providence. 
Is  rebaptized,  and  afterwards  renounces  the  Rite.  Embarks  at 
New  York  for  England.  The  Charter  for  Rhode  Island.  Petition 
to  sail  to  England  from  Boston  granted.  His  Life  and  Kind  Ser 
vices  in  Rhode  Island.  His  Sentence  revoked  by  Massachusetts. 
His  Death.  Statue  and  Park  Memorials. 

IX. 

MRS.    HUTCHINSON    AND    THE   ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY. 

PAGES  300-362. 

Religious  Controversies.  Old  Polemics.  Justification  and  Sanctifi- 
catron.  Meaning  of  Antinomianism.  Fanaticism  and  Enthusiasm. 
Excesses  of  Sectarism.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  John  Wheelwright 
in  Boston.  Join  the  Church.  Her  Kind  Services  to  Women. 
Holds  Women's  Meetings.  Criticises  the  Ministers.  Arrival  of 
Henry  Vane  and  Hugh  Peter.  Variance  in  Boston  Church  about 
Wheelwright.  Vane,  Peter,  Dudley,  and  Winthrop.  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's  Opinions  and  Meetings  brought  under  Question.  Aggrava 
tions  of  Strife.  Inferences.  The  Controversy  about  Wheelwright. 
Vane  chosen  Governor.  A  Party  in  the  Contest.  Scene  in  the 
Court.  Petty  and  Serious  Variances.  Increasing  Feuds  and  Ex 
citements.  Mr.  Cotton  under  a  Cloud.  A  Fast.  Wheelwright's 
Sermon.  The  Court  and  Church.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheel 
wright  repudiate  Antinomianism.  The  two  Covenants  of  Faith 
and  Works.  Court  held  at  Cambridge.  Winthrop  displaces  Vane 
as  Governor.  Law  excluding  Strangers.  Controversy  between 
Vane  and  Winthrop.  Vane  returns  to  England.  His  Character. 
Synod  at  Cambridge,  and  its  Results.  Remonstrance  to  Court. 
Wheelwright  tried  and  banished.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  tried  and 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

banished.  Her  Examination .  Complications  and  Bitterness  of 
the  Strife.  Disarming  and  Banishing  of  Remonstrants.  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  before  the  Church;  admonished  and  excommunicated. 
She  goes  to  Rhode  Island.  Her  Meetings  there.  Still  under 
Ward  of  the  Church.  Discipline  continued.  Her  Sons  in  Rhode 
Island  and  Boston.  Her  Friends.  The  Death  of  her  Husband. 
Her  Removal  to  the  Dutch  at  Astoria.  She  and  her  Large  Family 
there,  save  one  Child,  the  Victims  of  an  Indian  Massacre.  The 
Process  of  Reconciliation.  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  Posterity.  Mr. 
Wheelwright's  Petition  and  Forgiveness.  Character  and  Elements 
of  the  Antinomian  Controversy. 


X. 

A  JESUIT  ENJOYS  PURITAN  HOSPITALITY. 
PAGES  363-374. 

The  French  in  Canada.  Massachusetts  Law  against  Jesuits.  Diplo 
macy  for  Trade.  "  Papistical  "  Visitors  to  Boston.  Winthrop's 
Account  of.  Miles  Standish  at  the  Kennebec.  Father  Gabriel 
Druillette  and  the  Abenaquis.  His  Mission  from  Governor  D'Aille- 
boust  to  Massachusetts.  His  Journal.  His  Friend,  John  Wins- 
low.  Travel  and  Voyage.  At  Boston.  Guest  of  Major-General 
Gibbons.  Visits  Governor  Dudley.  Guest  of  the  Magistrates. 
Visits  Plymouth ;  Guest  of  Governor  Bradford.  His  Errand.  Vis 
its  the  Apostle  Eliot.  Courteous  Interview.  Returns  to  Boston. 
His  Instructions.  Visits  Governor  Endicott.  Returns  Home. 
Makes  a  Second  Visit. 


XI. 

THE  BAPTISTS  UNDER  PURITAN  DISCIPLINE. 
PAGES  375-407. 

Baptists  and  Anabaptists.  Doctrine  of  the  Roman  Church  on  Bap 
tism.  The  English  Church.  The  Puritan  Doctrine.  Infant  Bap 
tism.  Lack  of  New  Testament  Authority.  Takes  the  Place  of 
Circumcision.  Inferential  Teaching.  Anabaptists  of  Holland  and 
Germany.  Fanatical  Extravagances.  Anabaptists  in  Rhode  Island. 
Baptists  in  Massachusetts.  First  Dissentients  from  the  Westmin 
ster  Doctrine  of  Infant  Baptism.  Discipline  of.  Law  against 
Anabaptists.  Discontent  caused  by.  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
Colonies.  Visit  of  Rhode  Island  Baptists  to  Boston.  Severe  Deal- 


CONTENTS.  XV11 

ings  with  them.  President  Dunster  of  Harvard  College.  His 
Character  and  Services.  His  Views  on  Infant  Baptism.  Under 
Church  Discipline.  Impugned  by  the  Court.  Conference  with 
Elders.  Dunster  resigns  his  Office.  His  Protest  against  the  Bap 
tism  of  an  Infant.  Admonished  by  the  Court.  His  Final  Resig 
nation.  Treatment  of  him.  His  Successor  appointed.  His  Final 
Appeal.  Removal  to  Scituate.  His  Death.  Interment  at  Cam 
bridge.  Monument.  Baptists  in  Boston  establish  Separate  Con 
gregations.  Opposition  to  them.  Their  Final  Triumph.  Recon 
ciliation. 


XII. 

THE  INTRUSION  OF  THE  QUAKERS. 
PAGES  408-491. 

Consternation  in  Boston  on  the  First  Arrival  of  Quakers.  Antago 
nisms  of  Puritans  and  Quakers.  Principles  of  either  Party.  Ori 
gin  of  the  Quakers.  Their  Obnoxious  Behavior  obscured  their 
Noble  Principles.  Appeared  to  be  Wild  and  Lawless  Fanatics. 
Quaker  Literature.  Two  Classes  of  it.  Earliest  Tracts.  Their 
Spirit,  Sentiments,  and  Language.  Later  Quaker  Literature. 
Quakerism  an  Eclecticism.  George  Fox,  Organizer  of  the  So 
ciety  of  Friends.  His  Divine  Call  and  Commission.  His 
Whimseys  and  Oddities.  Treatment  of  Quakers  in  England. 
Opinions  held  about  them.  Dread  of  them  in  Massachusetts. 
A  Fast  Day.  Attitude  of  Puritans  and  Quakers,  and  Opin 
ions  about  each  other  as  they  meet.  The  First  Arrival  of 
Quakers.  Their  History.  Proceedings  against  them  by  the 
Magistrates.  Arrival  of  Others.  Imprisoned  and  sent  off.  Pro 
test  against  their  Treatment.  The  Court  passes  the  First  Law 
against  Quakers.  Proceedings  under  it.  Sufferers.  Comers  by 
Sea,  and  those  from  Rhode  Island.  Their  Alleged  Vagabondism, 
Illiteracy,  and  Blasphemy.  Extravagances.  Further  Legislation 
unavailing.  Death  Penalty  proposed.  Opposition  to.  Division 
in  the  Court.  Capital  Law  passed  by  a  Majority  of  One.  Massa 
chusetts  Correspondence  with  other  Colonies.  Treatment  of  Qua 
kers  in  them.  Quaint  Letter  from  Rhode  Island.  Sentences  to 
Death,  by  Massachusetts  Court.  Robinson  and  Stevenson  executed. 
Mary  Dyer  reprieved,  returns,  and  is  put  to  Death.  Petition 
from  her  Husband.  William  Leddra  executed.  Consent  of  Qua 
kers  under  Death  Sentence  to  go  off.  Popular  Opposition  against 
further  executions  breaks  down  the  Court.  Quakers  in  Prison 

b 


XV111  CONTENTS. 

ask  for  Release,  and  agree  to  leave  the  Jurisdiction.  A  General 
Jail  Delivery.  Court  addresses  the  King.  New  Law  for  Whip 
ping.  All  Quakers  in  Prison  released.  The  Quakers  appeal  to 
Charles  II.  His  Letter  to  the  Court.  The  Effect  of  it.  The 
Court's  Reply.  The  King  in  a  Second  Letter  Authorizes  "  A  Sharp 
Law  against  the  Quakers."  Excesses  of  some  of  the  Quakers. 
Further  Legislation.  Pacification  and  Tolerance.  Roger  Williams 
in  Controversy  with  the  Quakers. 


XIII. 

•*  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  COLONY  CHARTER. 
PAGES  492-555. 

Causes  which  threatened  the  Charter  Government.  Impracticability 
.>  of  the  Scheme  of  the  Theocracy.  Its  111- Working.  Persistency  of 
its  Administrators.  Temporary  Success.  Discussion  on  Relations 
to  England.  Parliamentary  Commissioners.  Diplomacy  and 
Agents.  Dissension  and  Discontent  among  the  People.  Enemies 
and  Complainants  in  England.  Political  Changes  and  Influences 
there.  Charles  II.  concerns  himself  with  the  Affairs  of  Massachu 
setts.  The  Court  first  under  Agitation.  The  Charter  concealed. 
The  Restriction  of  the  Franchise  qualified.  The  Relations  of 
Conformists  and  Dissenters  inverted.  Letters  to  the  King.  Rela 
tions  between  Massachusetts  and  the  other  New  England  Colonies. 
Chancellor  Clarendon's  Commissioners  to  New  England.  Their 
Reception  in  Massachusetts.  The  King  requires  Agents  to  be  sent 
to  him.  Contests  and  Variances  with  the  Commissioners.  The 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  "  The  Book  of  the  Generall  Lawes  and 
Liberties."  The  "Commonwealth."  A  Categorical  Question. 
The  Discomfiture  of  the  Commissioners.  The  Court  sends  Pres 
ents  to  the  King.  The  College  and  Public  Schools.  Peril  tem 
porarily  averted.  King  Philip's  War.  First  Appearance  of  the 
Enemy,  Randolph.  His  Plottings.  His  Reports  to  the  King. 
Agents  sent  by  the  Court.  Randolph's  Machinations.  The  King's 
Demands.  The  Court's  Tenacity.  The  Contestants  matched. 
Randolph's  Voyages  to  and  fro.  His  "  Representation  of  the 
Bostoneers."  Complaints  of  Mason  and  Gorges.  More  Agents  sent. 
Further  Complications.  Dissensions.  Appeals  to  the  King  on 
Charter  Rights,  and  the  Peculiar  Religious  Intent  of  the  Colony. 
Distractions  in  the  Court.  Death  of  Charles  II.  Accession  of 
James  II.  Chancery  Proceedings  ...against  the  Charter.  Its  Con 
demnation  and  Fall.  "  Sad  and  Awfull  Circumstances."  Results 


CONTENTS. 


of  the  Theocratical  Experiment.  Forms  of  Intolerance.  The 
Basis  of  Government.  The  Fruitage  of  Puritanism.  Medievalism, 
Ecclesiasticisrn,  and  Sacerdotalism.  The  Puritan  Minister.  Puri 
tan  Intolerance.  "  Christian  Unity." 

NOTE  ON  THE  "  SALEM  WITCHCRAFT." 
PAGES  556-504. 


INDEX 565 


MAPS:   BOSTON  IN  1630  AND  IN  1888     ....     xxii,  xxiii 


MAPS  OF  BOSTON  EST  1630  AND  EST  1888, 


THE    PURITAN    AGE   AND    RULE 


THE 


COLONY   OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY, 


I. 

BOSTON,  AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS. 

"  THE  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
in  New  England,1'  composed  of  the  Magistrates  and  those 
who  up  to  that  date  had  been  made  Freemen,  sometimes 
called  "  the  Commons,"  meeting  in  Boston,  Oct.  3,  1632,- 
passed  the  following  vote  :  — 

"It  is  thought  by  jpnerall  consent  that  Boston  is  the  fittest 
place  for  publique  meetings  of  any  place  in  the  Bay." 

This  vote  gave  its  Capital  to  the  future  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts.1 

Those  who  have  acceded  to  their  heritage,  either  by  birth 
or  adoption,  in  this  Commonwealth,  in  whatever  else  they 

1  During  some  jealousies  in  1644,  which  brought  about  changes  in  the 
magistracy,  there  were  omens  that  the  Court  might  be  removed  to  Ipswich, 
then  a  formidable  rival  to  Boston.  In  1650,  a  petition  in  behalf  of  the  town 
of  Boston  was  presented  to  the  General  Court  that  it  might  be  made  a  Cor 
poration,  —  a  "  Mayor  Town."  The  Court  deferred  decisive  action  to  its  next 
session,  with  an  intimation  that  the  request  should  be  granted  conditionally, 
if  reasons  could  be  given  for  it  consistent  with  "the  meane  condition  of  the 
country."  (Records,  iii.  207.)  Nothing  further  was  done  in  the  matter,  as' 
the  people  proved  unwilling  to  part  with  their  town-meeting  privileges.  It 
was  not  till  a  hundred  and  seventy  years  after  that  date,  that  Boston  became 
a  "Mayor  Town." 

1 


PURITAN  AGE. 

have  retained  or  yielded  of  the  principles  and  ways  of  its 
founders,  have  faithfully  agreed  with  them  in  opinion  and 
practice  in  the  matter  of  that  vote.  The  Court  had  met 
here  previously,  on  Oct.  19,  1630,  "  For  the  Establishinge 
of  the  Government." 

And  what  was  the  Boston  of  that  time,  when  a  company 
of  exiled  Englishmen  thus  laid  in  the  wilderness  the  foun 
dations  in  law  and  policy  of  a  new  commonwealth  ?  It  was 
a  rough,  rugged,  and  irregular  peninsula,  not  exceeding  a 
mile  and  a  half  square  of  land  area,  of  six  abrupt  eleva 
tions  with  valleys,  slenderly  clad  with  trees,  but  strewn 
with  thickets,  bushes,  and  reeds  ;  with  wide,  flat,  oozy  sea- 
margins,  inlets  of  river  and  ocean,  and  a  few  sunken  depos 
its  of  fresh  water.  Many  pure  and  limpid  springs  gushed 
to  the  surface.  One  white  occupant,  a  lonely  Englishman, 
ordained  in  the  Church,  but  with  no  flock  in  the  wilderness, 
had  here  a  cabin,  with  an  orchard  and  tilled-ground.  The 
peninsula  was  united  at  the  south  to  the  mainland  by  a 
neck  about  two  miles  in  length,  often  washed  over  by  the 
bays  on  either  side. 

"  The  fittest  place  in  the  Bay  for  publique  meetings." 
And  so  it  has  proved.  Where,  upon  any  spot  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  earth,  within  the  same  limits  of  time,  has  there 
been  held  as  here  such  a  succession  of  public  meetings,  in 
number,  variety  of  occasion  and  purpose,  in  constituency  of 
membership,  in  the  gravity  and  consequences  of  the  busi 
ness,  the  movements,  and  the  results  decided  in  them  ? 
From  edicts  going  forth  from  the  Court  meeting  in  the 
town  all  the  other  municipalities  making  up  the  Common 
wealth  have  been  created.  Here  levies  for  wars  with  In 
dians,  France,  and  England  have  been  exacted,  and  armies 
have  been  equipped  and  victualled.  Here  municipal,  State, 
and  National  Constitutions  have  been  debated  and  ratified. 
Here  patriotic  assemblies,  political  parties,  meetings  for 
every  interest  of  commerce,  trade,  education,  art,  science, 
enterprise,  benevolence,  —  in  recent  years  including  women 


BOSTON,   AND    PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  3 

with  men, — have  been  gathered,  to  give  and  hear  plain 
counsel,  and  to  be  stirred  by  eloquence. 

A  simple,  chronological  list  of  the  "  publique  meetings  " 
which  have  been  held  in  Boston,  with  the  dates  and  occa 
sions  and  the  doings  of  them,  since  the  Court  decreed  its 
"  fitness "  for  them,  would  in  itself  be  a  history  of  the 
series  of  developments  and  events  covering  all  the  highest 
interests  of  men  in  society.  We  have  but  to  add  the  fact, 
that  alike  in  serious  and  in  satirical  repute  Boston  has 
been  accredited  with  ingenuity,  inventiveness,  and  eccen 
tricity  in  the  variety,  fertility,  novelty,  and  extravagance 
of  the  "  isms  "  which  have  had  birth  and  furtherance  here, 
—  and  then  we  have  the  completed  inventory  of  what  has 
come  from  the  confiding  vote  of  our  first  legislators. 

Is  there  not  reason  then  for  asserting  that  no  portion 
of  the  area  of  Christendom  has  witnessed  such  varied  and 
radical  changes  as  have  been  realized  here  ?  And  as  the 
narrative  which  is  to  engage  us  is  to  bring  before  us  scenes, 
actors,  and  subjects  with  which  everything  now  before  our 
eyes  and  in  our  living  experience  is  so  marvellously  in  con 
trast,  we  may  note  in  full  the  transition  from  the  wilder 
ness  town  to  the  cosmopolitan  city.  An  ingenious  and 
admirably  drawn  map  now  lying  before  me  represents,  by 
an  artistic  arrangement  of  lines  and  colors,  the  original 
outlines  of  the  peninsula  and  its  present  bounds. 

The  following  description  of  Boston,  probably  written  in 
1649,  is  from  Johnson's  "  Wonder-Working  Providence,"1 
London,  1654  :  — 

v  "  Boston  —  invironed  it  is  with  the  Brinish  flouds,  saving  one 
small  Istmos,  which  gives  free  accesse  to  the  Neighbour  Townes  ; 
by  Land  on  the  South  side,  on  the  North  west,  and  North  East. 
The  forme  of  this  Towne  is  like  a  heart,  naturally  scituated  for 
Fortifications,  having  two  Hills  on  the  frontice  part  thereof  next  the 
Sea,  —  the  one  well  fortified  on  the  superfices  thereof,  with  store 
of  great  Artillery  well  mounted ;  the  other  hath  a  very  strong  bafc- 

1  Chapter  xx. 


4  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

tery  built  of  whole  Timber,  and  filled  with  Earth.  At  the  descent 
of  the  Hill  in  the  extreme  poynt  thereof,  betwixt  these  two  strong 
armes,  lies  a  large  Cove,  or  Bay,  on  which  the  chiefest  part  of  this 
Town  is  built,  over-topped  with  a  third  Hill :  all  three  like  over 
topping  Towers  keepe  a  constant  watch  to  foresee  the  approach  of 
forrein  dangers,  being  furnished  with  a  Beacon  and  lowd-babling 
Guns,  to  give  notice  by  their  redoubled  eccho  to  all  their  Sister- 
townes.  The  chiefe  Edifice  of  this  City-like  Towne  is  crowded  on 
the  Sea-bankes,  and  wharfed  out  with  great  industry  and  cost,  the 
buildings  beautifull  and  large,  some  fairly  set  forth  with  Brick,  Tile, 
Stone,  and  Slate,  and  orderly  placed  with  comly  streets,  whose  con- 
tiuuall  inlargement  presages  some  sumptuous  City.  The  wonder 
of  this  moderne  Age,  that  a  few  yeares  should  bring  forth  such 
great  matters  by  so  meane  a  handfull,  and  they  so  far  from  being 
inriched  by  the  spoiles  of  other  Nations  that  the  states  of  many 
of  them  have  been  spoiled  by  the  Lordly  Prelacy,  whose  Lands 
must  assuredly  make  Restitutions.  But  now  behold  the  admirable 
Acts  of  Christ !  at  this  his  peoples  landing^  the  hideous  Thickets  in 
this  place  were  such  that  Wolfes  and  Beares  nurst  up  their  young 
from  the  eyes  of  all  beholders,  —  in  those  very  places  where  the 
streets  are  full  of  Girles  and  Boys  sporting  up  and  downe,  with  a 
continued  concourse  of  people." 

Allowance  must  be  made  in  this  description  for  the  en 
thusiasm  of  the  military  officer,  surveyor,  law-maker,  town 
clerk,  court  deputy,  and  commissioner  on  all  miscellane 
ous  business,  —  Capt.  Edward  Johnson,  the  anonymous 
author  of  the  "  Wonder-Working  Providence  of  Zion's 
Saviour  in  New-England."  He  was  a  Puritan  of  the 
Puritans,  historian  —  after  a  sketchy,  uncouth,  and  frag 
mentary  fashion  —  of  affairs  of  State  and  Church  identified 
with  each  other.  His  prose  is  to  a  degree  intelligible,  but 
his  attempts  at  poetry  are  distressing,  suggestive  of  cramps 
and  dyspepsia  in  the  writer. 

What  was  once  the  narrowest  point  of  the  peninsula  is 
now  its  broadest  stretch  of  land  between  two  inner  bays. 
The  costliest  edifices  are  reared  on  sand  and  gravel  brought 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  5 

in  from  the  country  twenty  miles  distant,  on  foundations 
of  piling  and  granite  from  forest  and  quarry.  Its  land 
area  has  been  nearly  trebled.  Its  sea-margin  has  been 
fringed  successively  by  piers  and  wharves  extending  far 
ther  into  deep  water,  and  giving  to  it  on  the  map  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  centipede.  We  need  not  exempt  even  the 
amphibious  territory  of  Holland  from  the  sweep  of  the 
statement,  that  more  of  expense  and  labor  and  artificial 
construction  has  been  laid  out  on  the  land  surface  of  Bos 
ton  than  upon  any  other  equal  space  of  the  earth.  The 
levelling  of  hills,  the  reclaiming  of  alluvial  and  marshy 
basins,  the  grading  of  declivities,  the  opening  and  broaden 
ing  of  highways,  and  the  coating  of  stone  and  brick  laid 
over  the  original  soil,  present  visible  evidences  to  the  eye 
of  continued  and  still  uncompleted  processes.  Of  the  bur- 
rowings  beneath  the  surface,  the  disused  wells,  the  pipes 
for  water,  drains,  sewerage,  and  gas,  and  for  conveying 
heated  water,  the  labyrinthine  perforations,  with  their 
"  man-traps,"  and  their  risks  of  miasmatic  exhalations 
and  explosions,  convert  it  into  a  mined  citadel  or  a  slum 
bering  volcano. 

If  we  should  attempt  to  trace  the  changes  of  two  and  a 
half  centuries  on  this  peninsula  in  the  character  and  com 
position  of  the  people,  their  occupations  and  resources, 
their  habits  of  life,  their  amusements,  their  opinions,  their 
distribution  into  classes,  their  political  and  religious  par 
ties  and  sects,  and  their  inherited  traditional  or  alien  be 
liefs  and  proclivities,  —  we  should  be  led  into  discursioris, 
interesting  indeed,  but  having  no  other  relation  to  the  sub 
ject  of  these  pages  than  the  possible  connection  we  might 
find  between  operating  causes  in  the  past  and  their  results 
in  the  present. 

As  the  end  of  life  draws  near  to  some,  who  with  zeal, 
ability,  and  earnestness  have  been  leaders  in  some  of  the 
revolutionary  experiments  and  movements  in  human  affairs, 
more  strong  in  their  breasts  than  the  desire  for  the  prom- 


6  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

ised  bliss  of  the  hereafter  is  the  craving  that  they  might 
have  the  privilege  of  consciously  watching  the  development, 
the  fate  or  fortune,  of  their  enterprises  and  aims  on  the 
earth.  How  have  time  and  changing  generations  wrought 
with  them  ?  Have  their  plans  and  schemes,  into  which 
they  threw  their  noble,  heroic,  and  self-sacrificing  pride  and 
hope,  been  led  on  to  triumph  and  fruition  ;  or  have  they 
failed,  been  repudiated,  mocked  over,  and  consigned  to  the 
category  of  the  fallacies  and  follies  through  which  true 
progress  has  ever  made  its  impeded  advance  ?  If  one 
might  call  back  for  companionship  and  converse  a  veritable 
Puritan  magistrate  or  elder  of  our  first  age,  and  while  in 
the  use  of  eye  and  thought  on  this  same  old  soil,  with  its 
border  of  the  sea,  he  unites  the  past  with  the  present,  the 
sadness  with  which  he  would  pronounce  upon  the  failure  of 
his  devo'ut  scheme  could  be  relieved  only  by  the  comments 
and  explanation  which  you  could  offer  him  of  the  methods 
and  the  results.  Three  classes  of  public  buildings,  belonging 
respectively  to  the  City,  the  State,  and  the  Nation,  would 
furnish  you  the  guides  for  explaining  to  him  the  great  his 
toric  developments  which  have  left  such  marked  memorials 
of  their  course.  Next,  you  would  be  glad  to  withdraw  his 
gaze  and  his  curiosity  from  objects  which  you  know  would 
grieve  him,  by  naming  to  him  the  generous,  refining,  and 
benevolent  uses  of  the  long  array  of  public  edifices,  hos 
pitals,  asylums,  refuges,  homes,  libraries,  halls  of  culture 
and  of  art,  set  off  by  sumptuous  and  luxurious  private 
homes.  It  will  furnish  for  each  intelligent  citizen  a  good 
test  of  the  extent  and  method  of  his  information  of  the 
past  among  these  transformed  scenes,  and  the  changes 
which  time  has  wrought  in  them,  if  he  asks  himself  how 
far  he  is  qualified  to  interpret  the  processes  which  have 
wrought  here,  and  to  estimate  them  on  the  scale  of  the 
progress  of  humanity  in  all  things. 

It  would  have  been  a  subject  of  instructive  interest  for 
one  engaged  in  tracing  the  results  of  heredity  and  the  de- 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  7 

velopments  of  lineage  in  a  class  of  distinctly  marked  so 
cial  and  racial  characteristics,  if  he  could  have  had  before 
him  now  in  Boston  and  in  Massachusetts  only  the  descend 
ants  of  the  original  Puritan  stock.  At  the  period  marked 
as  the  limit  for  the  treatment  of  the  subject  of  the  follow 
ing  pages,  the  population  of  the  town  and  colony  was  sub 
stantially  indigenous  and  homogeneous.  There  was  then 
lingering  on  the  stage,  as  the  Nestor  of  the  original  type 
of  magistrates,  the  venerable  Simon  Bradstreet,  allowed, 
after  a  shock  of  revolution,  to  preside  for  a  brief  term 
over  the  flickering  after-glow  of  the  expiring  old  regime, 
with  a  faint  conceit  of  a  revival.  Judge  Sewall,  in  his 
journal,  utters  his  piteous  laments  as  one  by  one  the  first 
worthies,  "  who  loved  the  old  ways,"  fell  in  their  lot,  till 
the  last  was  gone.  But  their  children  —  of  which  were  he 
and  his  —  and  their  grandchildren,  with  replenishments 
of  like  beliefs  and  ways  from  the  old  home,  still  held  the 
ancient  rule.  The  Puritans  of  their  time  combined  the 
melancholy  and  the  softened  elemental  vigor  of  the  Indian 
summer  of  their  region.  By  recognizing  two  significant 
facts  which  would  enter  into  the  inquiry,  we  are  aided  in 
conceiving  what  would  have  been  the  inherited,  yet  reduced 
and  qualified,  characteristics  of  their  successive  generations 
restricted  to  the  development  from  the  original  stock,  with 
no  admixture.  First,  we  should  recognize  just  at  the  close 
of  the  Puritan  age  the  presence  and  working  of  some  soft 
ening,  liberalizing  influences  in  the  old  rigidity  of  doctri 
nal  belief,  in  the  constraint  of  religious  observance,  and  in 
the  austerity  of  manners  and  habits  of  life.  The  second 
fact  to  be  held  in  mind  is,  that  there  yet  survive  among  us 
sturdy  specimens  of  those  of  Puritan  lineage,  training,  and 
spirit,  who  still  rejoice  in  their  inheritance,  and  under  what 
ever  enfranchisement  or  enlargement  they  may  have  found 
for  it  stand  for  the  essentials  of  the  old  belief  and  prin 
ciples.  Taking  those  two  facts  together,  —  the  liberalizing 
and  softening  of  the  old  austerities,  and  the  survival  in 


8  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

life  and  practical  influence  of  Puritan  principles,  —  we 
might  with  some  facility  have  traced  the  developments  of 
Puritanism  from  its  own  stock,  on  its  own  soil. 

There  are  still  secluded  towns  and  villages  of  the  Com 
monwealth,  not  accessible  by  railroads  and  not  occupied  by 
manufacturing  corporations,  in  which  the  old  Puritanism 
has,  so  to  speak,  "  gone  to  seed,"  without  change  of  crops. 
The  original  sandy  and  stony  soil  has  known  no  fertilizers, 
and  those  who  till  it  still  have  to  live  on  its  root  and 
surface  products.  But  within  the  memories  of  those  still 
in  life  here  in  Boston,  elements  and  influences,  peoples 
and  institutions,  have  been  subjected  to  such  radical  and 
marvellous  changes  as  to  make  it  equally  futile  and  vain 
to  ask  what  the  place,  its  condition  and  circumstances, 
would  have  been  if  left  to  the  developments  from  its  own 
lineage  and  stock.  One  might  almost  say  that  the  inheri 
tance  has  lapsed,  from  the  failure  of  heirs  of  lawful  succes 
sion,  and  by  alienation,  into  the  hands  of  strangers.  The 
descendants  of  the  Puritans  are  in  the  minority  here,  nor  is 
the  rule  nor  the  tone  of  life  with  them.  Slight  respect  of 
recognition  or  courtesy  is  paid  to  them  or  their  traditions, 
such  as  is  thought  to  be  due  from  some  fine  and  generous 
natures  to  the  representatives  of  a  decayed,  bat  once  formi 
dable  family.  We  put  the  sum  and  substance,  the  facts 
and  their  import,  of  all  the  transformation  that  has  been 
wrought  here  in  a  single  sentence,  when  we  say  that  men, 
principles,  habits,  and  institutions  have  now  the  ascendency 
in  the  Puritan  heritage  of  which  the  fathers  intended  and 
hoped  to  have  rid  themselves  and  their  posterity  for  all 
time.  The  process  and  the  results  of  this  transformation 
may  here  be  glanced  at,  not  in  a  partisan  or  sectarian  spirit, 
nor  with  intimations  of  personal  preferences  or  regret,  nor 
even  "with  references  to  gains  or  losses,  improvement  or  de 
terioration, —  but  simply  in  their  character  as  changes. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  a  foreign  element 
for  the  first  time  came  in  to  mingle  with  our  native  Puri- 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS. 

tanism.  It  was  not  large  or  influential  in  its  substance, 
nor  in  any  way  disturbing  by  its  presence,  but  on  the  con 
trary,  welcome  and  congenial.  It  was  that  of  the  French 
Huguenots,  whose  doctrinal  beliefs  and  religious  usages 
were  mainly  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  Puritans,  though; 
the  rigidity  and  strictness  of  the  Puritan  discipline  led 
many  of  them  afterward  to  prefer  the  forms  and  worship 
of  the  English  Church.  Even  the  convulsions,  innovations, 
and  relaxation  of  restraints  and  morals  attendant  and  con 
sequent  upon  the  struggle  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  did 
not  radically  transmute  or  largely  impair  the  inherited  Puri 
tanism  of  Massachusetts,  in  its  religious  habits,  principles, 
or  institutions.  The  foremost  of  its  patriots  in  the  cause 
of  liberty  —  Samuel  Adams  —  was  through  and  through, 
in  spirit  and  habit  of  life,  in  scruples  and  in  observances, 
a  Puritan.  It  is  to  the  second  quarter  of  the  present  cen 
tury  that  we  must  assign  the  entrance  into  the  life  and 
population  of  Boston  of  those  foreign  elements  which  now 
hold  the  mastery  here.  Expansion,  prosperity,  the  develop 
ment  of  the  resources  of  the  country,  the  introduction  of 
the  factory  system,  the  demands  for  vigorous  and  cheap 
labor,  the  needs  of  domestic  service,  and  the  renaissance 
of  art,  literature,  and  every  form  of  culture,  amusement, 
recreation,  and  enjoyment  are  all  to  be  recognized  as  pre 
senting  the  reasons  and  occasions  for  the  wonderful  trans 
mutation —  we  cannot  call  it  development  —  which  has 
been  witnessed  by  those  still  living  on  this  peninsula.  The 
process  has  certainly  not  been  "evolution,"  and  it  remains 
to  be  proved  whether  it  is  a  case  of  the  "  survival  of  the 
fittest."  The  fathers  had  left  us  a  noble,  free,  and  inviting 
heritage.  The  heritage  was  as  free  and  inviting  —  and  'in 
contrast  with  their  former  condition  and  surroundings  more 
enviable  —  to  the  foreigners  who  have  flooded  it,  as  it  was 
to  the  natives.  The  terms  of  the  franchise  and  of  the  full 
rights  of  citizenship  were  of  the  most  generous  laxity  ; 
and  party  policy,  with  its  strategies  of  caucuses  and  elec- 


10  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

tion  frauds,  have  put  offices,  patronage,  and  the  control 
and  use  of  the  public  treasury  in  the  hands  of  those  who 
in  any  other  country  would  have  been  aliens. 

Breaking  abruptly  the  line  of  reflection  and  remark  in 
which  this  subject  would  engage  us,  I  turn  to  the  notice 
of  some  of  the  more  striking  manifestations  of  change  here. 
Some  of  these  may  be  regarded  as  legitimate  developments 
from  the  old  Puritanism,  to  be  referred  to  the  enlargements 
of  view,  the  increased  intelligence,  and  freedom  of  thinking 
and  acting  of  those  in  its  direct  lineage.  But  the  most 
radical  and  subversive  and  effective  of  them  all  are  of 
importation  from  foreign  peoples  and  principles,  habits, 
tastes,  and  institutions. 

In  not  a  single  one  of  the  many  scores  of  the  places  for 
Sunday  worship  in  this  city  is  the  old  Puritan  creed  in  its 
-literal  rigidness  —  followed  by  its  discipline  in  the  fellow 
ship  —  hear tilyT  loyally,  consistently  accepted  and  honored. 
In  the  consecrated  and  unconsecrated  churches  and  halls 
there  is  an  unchallenged  and  peaceful  —  and  who  will  pre 
sume  to  say  that  it  is  not  prevailingly  an  instructive, 
edifying,  and  practically  good  —  dispensation  of  religious 
and  moral  teaching  and  observance,  desired  and  turned  to 
account  by  believers  in  all  creeds  and  in  no  creeds.  Six 
synagogues  engage  the  devotions  of  ten  thousand  Israelites 
in  our  population.  The  largest  and  most  thronged  of  the 
places  of  worship  are  those  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  of 
which  there  was  but  one  in  the  State  at  the  opening  of  this 
century.  The  head  and  the  majority  of  the  members  of 
our  city  government  are  Roman  Catholics  of  a  foreign 
stock.  Curiously  enough,  the  same  year  which  finds  an 
Irishman  of  that  creed  in  the  Mayor's  chair  in  Boston, 
finds  a  foreign-born  Roman  Catholic  —  the  first  since  the 
Reformation  — with  the  honors  of  Lord  Mayor  of  London. 
Dutifully  did  our  chief  municipal  magistrate  observe  the 
original  and  time-honored  usage  that  the  organization  of 
his  government,  like  that  of  the  annual  town-meeting, 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC  MEETINGS.  11 

should  be  opened  with  prayer;  and  the  service  was  duly 
and  reverently  rendered  by  a  priest. 

Any  one  who  now  or  at  any  future  time  shall  be  inter 
ested  in  noting  the  stages  and  phases  of  change  and  devel 
opment  through  which  this  community  has  passed,  will 
find  most  suggestive  information  in  a  series  of  volumes 
published  by  authority  of  the  city  government,  and  edited > 
by  the  Record  Commissioners.  These,  beginning  from  the 
first  settlement,  report  to  us  the  proceedings  of  the  author 
ities,  selectmen,  school  committees,  overseers  of  the  poor, 
of  the  highways,  and  of  all  public  affairs.  The  most  inter 
esting  point  of  view,  as  giving  us  instruction  on  the  sub 
ject  now  before  us,  is  that  we  have  in  these  volumes,  chro 
nologically  presented  to  us,  such  striking  illustrations  of 
the  firm  hold  which  Puritan  methods  and  principles  had 
taken  in  the  administration  of  secular  affairs,  —  all  that 
concerned  the  economic,  thrifty,  and  protective  welfare  of 
the  town  and  its  inhabitants.  We  see  that  the  foremost 
of  the  citizens  in  character,  social  position,  and  influence 
were  invariably  intrusted  with  these  interests,  however 
trivial  in  details.  And  this  class  of  citizens,  to  whom 
their  time  and  what  little  of  leisure  they  could  command 
was  of  the  highest  value,  were  always  found  ready  to  dis 
charge  these  trusts.  Petty,  irksome,  and  vexatious  were 
many  of  the  matters  committed  to  their  oversight ;  but  the 
responsibility  which  they  tasked  was  always  faithfully,  if 
not  cheerfully,  met.  True,  these  were  the  days  of  small 
things,  compared  with  the  expansion  of  our  own  times  ; 
but  none  the  less  they  afforded  a  field  for  the  exercise  of 
great  principles,  and  for  the  unchanging  rules  of  rectitude 
and  duty.  And  the  abiding  or  lingering  sway  of  Puritan 
ism  animated  and  controlled  them.  There  was  a  rigidity, 
a  scrutinizing  watchfulness,  a  severe  regard  for  economy 
and  yet  a  generous  exercise  of  liberality,  an  expanded 
public  spirit,  and  always  a  sense  of  accountability  to  the 
highest  exactions  of  integrity  characteristic  of,  if  not  pe- 


12  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

culiar  to,  these  municipal  magistracies.  The  original,  self- 
protective,  self-defensive,  legal  method  of  warning  out  of 
the  town  any  undesirable  stranger  of  doubtful  antecedents, 
and  who  under  any  circumstances  might  prove  a  burden  or 
a  nuisance  to  the  community,  was  continued  for  more  than 
a  century.  Places  of  doubtful  repute  for  resort,  revelry, 
and  idleness  were  under  sharp  oversight.  The  reckless 
ness  and  extravagance  of  outlay  of  public  funds  have  come 
in  among  us  through  the  license  of  casting  the  burden 
of  debt  on  posterity.  But  that  is  of  modern  license, 
unknown  to  the  fathers.  The  word  "  juncate,"  which 
the  dictionary  uses  for  "  a  stolen  entertainment,"  was  not 
in  their  civic  speech,  still  less  was  it  recognized  in  their 
habits.  It  is  amusing  to  note  the  meagreness  of  the  diet 
charged  as  paid  for  by  the  treasurer  during  the  service  of 
special  committees. 

Now  that  Civil  Service  Examinations  are  in  vogue,  it 
might  be  judicious  to  require  henceforward,  as  the  city 
government  has  printed  these  proud  and  instructive  rec 
ords  of  the  noble  principles  of  their  predecessors,  that  all 
candidates  for  municipal  office  should  faithfully  read  them. 
In  the  day  of  hard  and  small  things,  the  beginnings  in 
all  public  provisions  —  highways,  bridges,  churches  and 
schools,  mills  and  forts  —  certainly  impose  heavier  bur 
dens  than  do  later  works  under  the  name  of  improve 
ments.  The  fathers  bore  the  former ;  we  lay  the  charges 
of  the  latter  on  posterity.  The  General  Court  in  1646,  when 
occasion  called  for  it,  made  this  cogent  statement :  — 

"  We  spend  nothing  superfluously  in  buildings,  feastings,  pen 
sions,  public  gratuities,  officers'  fees,  or  the  like;  nay,  we  are 
ashamed  sometimes  at  our  penuriousnes,  but  that  we  had  rather 
beare  shame  and  blame  than  overburden  the  people.  Such  as  are 
in  chief  office  amongst  us  are  content  to  live  beneath  the  honour 

o 

of  their  places,  that  they  might  ease  the  common  charge."  l 
1   Hutclrinsori's  Collection  of  Papers,  p.  209. 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC  MEETINGS.  13 

Some  of  the  changes  most  obvious  to  the  eye,  and  most 
significant  in  their  meaning  to  those  whose  memory  takes 
in  the  first  infusion  of  a  foreign  element  into  our  indige 
nous  population,  may  be  noted  in  their  simple  aspect  of 
facts,  without  reflections  or  comments  upon  them.  There 
has  been  an  enormous  increase  of  the  dependent,  indigent, 
and  criminal  classes.  Dating  from  the  first  settlement  of 
this  and  of  other  towns,  the  authorities,  as  has  been  men 
tioned,  warned  and  expelied  from  it  any  unwelcome  stran 
ger  who  might  become  a  burden  on  the  industry  of  others, 
or  a  public  nuisance.  For  more  than  two  centuries  each 
town  had  provided  a  refuge,  or  poor's  farm,  for  the  support 
of  every  forlorn,  orphaned,  or  reduced  person  who  by  citi 
zenship  or  through  parentage  could  claim  a  "  legal  resi 
dence  "  in  it.  At  first,  in  the  influx  of  needy  persons  from 
abroad,  they  were  naturally  distributed  in  these  refuges. 
But  their  legitimate  occupants,  who  "  had  known  better 
days,"  complained  grievously  of  such  forced  companion 
ship.  This  compelled  the  State  to  provide  and  maintain 
enormous  costly  institutions  for  the  orphans,  the  insane, 
and  the  diseased  who  had  no  legal  residence. 

For  more  than  two  centuries  the  public  school  system, 
"the  boast  and  glory  of  Massachusetts,"  was  sustained 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  citizens,  supplying  the  genera 
tions  of  both  sexes  with  such  education  as  suited  their 
needs  and  condition  in  life.  The  methods  in  which  reli 
gion  and  morality  were  taught  in  them  met  the  demands 
of  parents  and  guardians.  The  religious  guides  of  the 
incoming  foreign  element  of  the  population  making  com 
plaint  of  this  established  method  in  our  schools,  it  was 
modified  to  meet  their  scruples.  Then  followed  a  fresh 
complaint  from  them  that  the  schools  were  "  irreligious 
and  godless."  The  priests  are  now  compelling  the  pa 
rents  of  their  youth,  under  penalty  of  discipline,  to  with 
draw  them,  and  to  set  up  schools  of  their  own.  This 
subject  is  engaging  public  discussion  that  is  earnest  and 


14  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

apprehensive.  The  objection  is,  that  this  jealously  sepa 
rate  method  of  education  of  the  young  will  tend  to  impede 
the  assimilation  of  the  diverse  elements  of  our  population, 
which  is  greatly  to  be  desired.  There  have  been  many 
manifestations  of  sensitiveness  when  our  Irish  fellow-citi 
zens  are  distinguished  by  their  nationality,  as  indicating 
a  race  or  sectarian  prejudice  ;  yet  more  demonstratively 
than  any  other  class  of  our  adopted  citizens  do  they  keep 
their  nationality  before  the  notice  of  the  community. 
Considering  their  alienation  of  feeling  from  England,  one 
might  suppose  that  the  Irish  here  would  heartily  enter  into 
the  commemoration  of  that  most  signal  incident  in  the 
patriotic  history  of  Boston,  on  March  17,  when  Washing 
ton  compelled  the  evacuation  of  the  town  by  the  British 
army,  which  had  had  military  possession  of  it  for  a  year. 
But,  no!  the  Irish  prefer  on  that  day  to  commemorate 
their  national  Saint,  who  is  to  their  fellow-citizens  a 
purely  mythical  character.  Their  procession,  the  most 
demonstrative  annual  parade  in  the  city,  with  its  national 
emblems  and  regalia,  has  liberty  to  obstruct  the  streets ; 
and  the  youth  of  the  city  are  allowed  by  the  Mayor  a 
holiday  from  their  schools,  that  they  may  see  the  show. 
And  this  in  the  old  Puritan  town  of  Boston ! 

It  is  in  some  of  the  country  towns  in  Massachusetts,  the 
planters  of  which  received  their  grants  from  the  General 
Court,  that  we  may  trace  the  most  marked  change  which 
has  come  in  with  the  recent  generation.  The  first  condi 
tion  of  the  grant  was  that  the  settlers  should  be  under  the 
care  of  a  competent  and  approved  Orthodox  minister.  He 
was  a  citizen  with  others,  casting  his  vote  with  them ;  but 
he  was  the  guardian  and  good  genius  of  the  settlement. 
The  tenure  of  his  office  was  character  and  ability,  with  the 
conditions  of  the  good-will  and  approval  of  his  townsmen. 
He  was  not  sent  and  billeted  upon  them ;  he  answered 
to  their  call  to  come  to  them.  As  a  husband  and  a  father 
he  had  a  home  and  all  domestic  ties.  His  home  and  the 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  15 

homes  of  his  flock  made  one  circle  of  intimacies  and 
responsibilities  in  all  sympathies  and  helpfulness.  He 
had  no  official,  clerical  superior,  and  it  was  for  his  people 
only  to  appoint  his  means  of  support  and  to  receive  his 
record  of  his  trust.  In  all  that  related  alike  to  the 
secular  and  religious  charges,  business,  and  interests  of 
the  town,  all  the  inhabitants  had  the  disposal  of  affairs 
from  the  initiative.  They  planned,  built,  and  furnished  the 
place  of  worship  ;  they  took  the  oversight  of  the  poor, 
fixed  the  occasions  and  seasons  for  religious  observance, 
asked  counsel  from  their  minister  when  they  wished  for  it, 
intrusted  him  with  their  confidences  when  they  pleased  to 
do  so,  and  differed  with  him  and  called  him  to  account 
when  they  had  grounds  for  it.  As  a  man  who  had  received 
the  best  education  of  his  time,  he  was  to  represent  among 
his  people  the  good  cause  of  learning,  from  its  essential 
primary  elements  for  every  child,  on  to  an  oversight  of  the 
best  training  for  professional  life  of  any  promising  youth 
that  he  might  find  in  the  most  frugal  home. 

In  contrast  with  these  developed  principles  and  usages 
from  Puritanism  in  town,  village,  and  hamlet,  we  have 
set  before  us  now,  especially  in  manufacturing  .places 
thronged  with  Irish  and  French  Canadian  immigrants, 
quite  a  different  state  of  things,  especially  as  regards  re 
ligion  and  education.  A  foreign  celibate  priest,  with  no 
local  or  traditional  interest  in  the  scenes  of  his  work,  is 
sent,  uncalled  and  unknown,  by  his  ecclesiastical  superior. 
He  owes  no  account  and  renders  none  to  the  people  that 
he  calls  his  parish.  The  Curia  for  his  supreme  allegiance 
is  across  the  sea.  He  shares  no  domestic  ties,  no  parental 
feelings ;  in  the  Puritan  sense  he  has  no  home,  either  for 
his  flock  or  for  himself.  Such  solaces  and  intimacies  as 
he  has  must  be  found  among  fellow-priests,  with  their  pro 
fessional  confidences  and  secrets.  No  one  of  his  flock  may 
bring  him  under  questioning.  Their  relations  to  him  are 
very  like  what  they  are  to  their  physicians  and  legal  ad- 


16  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

visers  :  they  have  to  receive  instructions  and  follow  pre 
scriptions.  The}7  are  appealed  to  and  assessed  for  money 
for  religious  purposes,  but  they  have  nothing  to  say  as  to 
its  use,  for  the  exchequer  of  the  Roman  Church  makes  no 
return  to  the  laity.  Its  laity  have  no  voice  in  its  economical 
or  professional  administration.  Its  priests  may  demand  ad 
mission  to  the  very  secrets  of  their  souls,  and  it  is  for  the 
priests  to  decide  for  each  layman  what  is  the  realm  of  con 
science  and  religion  over  which  they  have  supreme  sway. 
The  withholding  of  the  last  sacraments  is  the  ghostly 
thrall  over  those  who  fail  of  spiritual  obedience. 

Here,  certainly,  are  two  quite  different  types  of  the 
Christian  ministry.  When  Puritanism,  even  in  its  reduced 
forms,  is  thus  brought  into  contrast  with  the  ecclesiastical 
sway  from  which  it  thought  to  release  itself  once  for  all, 
the  contrast  has  its  significance.  The  history,  from  the 
beginning,  of  very  many  of  these  towns  has  been  published : 
the  continuation  of  it  will  have  many  new  features. 

Without  following  further  into  general  or  detailed  con 
ditions  the  aspects  of  things  around  us,  marking  the  amaz 
ing  changes  from  the  sway  of  old  Puritanism,  we  may  take 
a  single  subject  as  significant  and  typical  of  very  many  of 
them.  Let  it  be  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  Sunday,  or 
Lord's  Day.  Of  the  whole  body  of  distinctive  Puritan 
legislation  in  the  support  of  religion  and  the  Church,  there 
remains  now  upon  our  statute  book  but  a  single  subject, 
which  almost  from  year  to  year,  in  its  changed  relations  to 
social  and  civil  life,  comes  up  for  discussion  with  a  view  to 
the  modification  and  adaptation  of  existing  laws.  It  is  the 
observance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  guarded  by  restric 
tions  and  penalties.  The  Puritan  legislation  on  the  subject 
will  come  before  us  in  its  fit  place.  Whenever  an  appeal  has 
been  made  for  a  relaxation  of  the  old  restraints,  or  for  a 
larger  individual  or  social  freedom  on  that  day,  —  as  for 
the  carrying  of  the  mails,  facilities  of  travel,  the  transac 
tion  of  secular  business,  the  opening  of  museums  and 


17 

libraries,  the  allowance  of  public  amusements,  —  the  lovers 
of  what  is  sacred  in  the  past,  cherishing  its  ways  through 
reverential  or  traditional  sentiments,  warmly  utter  their 
pleading  protests.  They  are  met  by  counter  protests  against 
the  conserving  or  reviving  the  rigid  usages  of  the  old 
Puritanism.  The  inference  then  is  that  that  stern  type  of 
religion,  with  all  its  characteristic  features  and  methods,  is 
antiquated  and  repudiated.  On  this  subject  a  middle  party, 
with  a  somewhat  undefined  shape  and  office  of  mediation, 
presents  itself.  There  still  lingers  and  hovers  over  us  from 
the  past  the  fond  and  fragrant  benedictive  spell  from  "  the 
blessing  of  the  Sabbath,"  than  which  no  richer  or  more 
potent  influence  has  mingled  in  the  sum  of  all  earthly 
sanctities.  The  most  sacred  memories  and  joys  of  home, 
the  lyric  ballads  and  essays  of  our  choicest  literature,  have 
gathered  and  retain  the  aroma  of  that  blessing.  The  once 
quiet  streets  and  highways,  the  hush  of  noise,  the  renewal 
which  by  the  law  of  periodicity  conies  to  man  and  beast 
from  rest,  the  limit  on  servile  toil,  the  better  garb,  and  the 
generous  motive  that  individuals  merge  their  own  private 
liberties  in  a  regard  for  a  universal  good,  —  these  are  the 
strong  resources  of  argument  for  that  mediating  party  on 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  They  would  retain  all 
that  is  conservative  of  good  in  this  inheritance  from  the 
past,  while  generously  considerate  of  the  concessions  to  be 
made  on  account  of  the  changed  circumstances  of  society 
and  the  conflicting  demands  of  social  life  in  the  present. 
It  is  in  debating  and  deciding  what  these  concessions  are 
to  surrender,  that  we  are  most  made  to  realize  how  hetero 
geneous  in  its  elements  and  composition  is  the  population 
which  accedes  in  this  city  to  its  once  homogeneous  con 
stituency.  "Works  of  necessity  and  mercy  "  is  the  familiar 
phrase  which  the  old  laws  used  as  allowed  in  exemption 
from  the  rigid  rule  of  Sabbath  observance.  The  calling  of 
the  doctor  out  of  the  meeting-house  during  service,  a  fire- 
alarm,  or  a  rally  to  some  case  of  danger  or  suffering,  covered 

2 


18  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

all  the  indulgences  intended  in  that  phrase.  Scarcely  did 
it  allow  of  summer  or  harvest  labor  in  the  fields  when  the 
clouds  were  threatening.  But  how  shall  we  in  these  days 
and  circumstances  define  works  of  necessity  and  mercy, 
which  have  become  so  multiplied  and  varied  ?  It  is  gen 
erally  admitted  that  the  statutes,  in  some  liberal  yet  not 
lax  way,  must  adjust  themselves  by  a  deference  to  a  senti 
ment  which  has  planted  itself  strongly,  if  not  devoutly,  in 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  all  considerate  persons  ;  that  an 
inherited  social  safeguard  and  blessing,  that  might  be  de 
fined  by  a  great  variety  of  terms,  is  conditioned  for  all  our 
generations  upon  the  perpetuity  of  the  red-letter  mark 
upon  the  one  day  out  of  seven,  assigning  to  it  special  uses, 
all  of  which  shall  have  the  sanction  of  law  and  custom, 
on  the  one  single  exacted  condition  that  they  seek  and 
serve  some  form  of  good,  and  are  restrictive  of  evil. 

It  has  been  with  facility  and  without  opposition  or  re 
monstrance,  save  from  a  remnant  of  old  survivors  in  nar 
row  surroundings  of  place  or  fellowship,  that  the  stern  and 
gloomy  sway  of  the  old  Puritan  Sabbath  was  broken.  The 
morbid  austerity  and  scrupulosity  of  their  type  of  piety 
had  created  for  them  a  rule  and  standard  for  the  Sabbath 
which  exceeded  in  its  demands  even  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  Bible,  —  their  supreme  authority.  The  Old  Testament 
gave  but  partial  sanction  to  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  and  the 
New  Testament  gives  it  none  whatever.  As  the  old  regards 
of  bugbear  superstitions  and  strained  Scripture  interpreta 
tions  are  discredited,  the  Lord's  Day  is  an  inheritance  to 
be  retained,  enjoyed,  and  improved  by  those  whose  gain  it 
will  be  to  preserve  it,  whose  loss  it  will  be  to  part  with  it. 

From  this  scarcely  more  than  a  superficial  and  very 
incomplete  review  of  some  of  the  changes,  by  time  and 
the  succession  of  seven  or  eight  generations,  effected  in 
the  town  which,  through  its  public  meetings,  planted  arid 
legislated  for  this  Commonwealth,  let  us  go  back  to  the 
beginnings  of  our  subject. 


BOSTON,    AND    PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  19 

These  pages  are,  for  the  most  part,  concerned  with  the 
proceedings,  measures,  and  results  of  "  public  meetings  " 
held  in  Boston  by  governing  authorities  during  the  first  half 
century  of  its  occupancy  by  English  colonists.  There  are 
many  matters  of  local  and  of  broader  historic  interest  to 
be  found  in  the  methods  and  results  of  their  legislation 
and  administration  which  cannot  be  noticed  here.  The 
heritage  and  the  institutions  which  time,  with  its  changes, 
has  developed  from  those  beginnings  have  come  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  civilized  world.  That  fact  alone  would 
make  the  seed-planting,  from  which  has  grown  such  a  har 
vesting,  worthy  of  a,  retrospective  study.  It  has  indeed 
won  to  it  the  keen  inquiries  and  discussions  of  many  well- 
trained  minds.  |A  mercantile  company,  formed  in  the  Old 
World  for  trade  and  colonization  here,  transported  itself 
and  its  Charter,  with  more  or  less  of  legality  in  the  pro 
ceeding,  to  establish  itself  with  its  covenant  of  proprietor 
ship  and  its  rights  of  administration,  to  this  then  virgin 
soil  on  the  edge  of  a  wilderness,  washed  by  the  ocean 
waters  of  a  fair  bay.  We  are  to  keep  in  view  from  the 
start  that  their  proceedings  would  necessarily,  to  a  large 
extent,  be  without  the  guidance  and  the  limitations  of  pre 
cedent.  There  was  so  much  that  was  original  and  inde 
pendent  in  their  experiment  that  they  would  naturally 
be  compelled,  even  perhaps  beyond  the  borders  of  right 
and  safety,  to  be  a  law  to  themselves.  Here  they  estab 
lished  a  form  of  government,  a  mode  of  rule,  a  style  of 
citizenship,  and  a  methc\d  of  administration  such  as  had 
never  been  put  on  trial  in  any  part  or  in  any  previous  age 
of  the  world.  .  We  have  before  us  a  narrative,  with  epi 
sodes,  which  though  not  wholly  lacking  in  the  interest  of 
adventure  and  enterprise  is  in  the  substance  of  it  painfully 
trying  to  the  sensibilities  of  readers,  and  provocative  of 
sharp  censure  and  stern  indignation,  ylt  is  a  narrative  of 
a  grim  and  iron  rule  of  bigotry,  austerity,  and  intolerance ; 
of  a  harsh  and  cruel  dealing,  not  with  crime  and  wicked- 


20  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

ness,  but  with  what  were  called  heresies,  —  novel,  offen- 
sive,  and  dangerous  opinions  held  as  matters  of  conscience. 
And  what  further  complicates  and  embarrasses  any  fair 
dealing  with  the  subject,  is,  that  these  heresies  were  them 
selves  forms  of  Puritan  intolerance,  —  were  not  peaceful 
and  harmless  in  utterance,  but  aggressive  and  turbulent. 
What  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  did  under  the  prompt 
ings  of  intolerance  and  bigotry  has  often  been  told  to  their 
discredit  and  condemnation  ;  but  why  they  did  it,  through 
what  instigation  of  motive,  for  what  intent  and  purpose, 
and  by  what  mastery  and  subjection  of  their  own  free-will 
under  an  authority  recognized  by  them  as  supreme,  has 
not  always  been  fairly  told.  It  may  be  that  in  coming  to 
a  better  apprehension  of  the  motive  and  prompting  of  their 
enterprise,  as  found  not  in  any  wilful  conception  of  their 
own,  but  in  what  they  believed  to  be  a  divine  inspiration, 
we  may  transfer  some  of  our  reproach  from  them  and  their 
acts,  and  attach  our  judgment  to  the  delusion  which  mis 
guided  them. 

As  the  writer  seeks  to  set  forth  more  fully  in  the  follow 
ing  pages,  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  attempted  here  a 
wholly  novel  scheme  and  experiment  in  civil  government. 
It  was  adopted  in  entire  and  lofty  sincerity  of  purpose, 
demanding  from  them  first  of  all  several  of  the  highest 
qualities  of  character,  —  self-consecration,  fortitude,  con 
stancy,  —  and  various  forms  of  sacrifice.  The  novelty  of 
the  scheme,  and  its  vital  connection  with  a  particular  re 
ligious  creed  and  type  of  piety  were  its  distinctive  char 
acteristics  ;  worldly  profit,  and  all  other  mundane  ends, 
were  subordinated  to  an  ideal  object.  The  experiment 
was  in  a  continuous  line  with  others  which  preceded  and 
have  followed  it, —  alike  ideal  and  practical,  in  the  devel 
opment  of  social,  civil,  and  industrial  schemes  for  human 
progress.  It  was  entitled  in  that  series  of  experiments  to 
have  had  its  trial.  The  especial  and  peculiar  quality  in  it 
was  in  the  place  given  to,  and  the  use  made  of,  the  Bible 


BOSTON,   AND    PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  21 

in  legislation  and  administration,  under  a  joint  form  of 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  order.  The  opportune  time  for  the 
.rial  of  the  experiment  came  when  the  Bible  was  held  as 
it  never  had  been  before,  and  never  has  been  held  since, 
not  only  as  sufficient  for  the  use  that  was  then  made  of  it, 
but  as  authoritatively  requiring,  by  positive  divine  injunc 
tion,  that  it  should  reverently  and  faithfully  be  put  to 
that  use. 

vNo  thought  of  what  is  to  us  so  obvious  in  the  impracti 
cability  of  the  experiment  seems  to  have  presented  itself  to 
those  who  put  it  on  trial.  The  sanction  of  divine  authority 
made  it  obligatory.  Begun  by  one  generation,  it  was  con 
tinued  into  another.  It  was  clung  to  tenaciously, — we  may 
even  say,  defiantly.  Two  conditions  were  pre-eminently 
requisite  for  its  successful  trial.  One  was,  full  persuasion, 
conviction,  resolute  adherence,  and  constancy  by  those 
who  had  adopted  it,  under  all  perplexities  and  opposition. 
These  were  human  impediments,  while  the  scheme  was 
God's  ;  the  issue  then  was  between  the  purpose  of  God 
.and  the  resistance  of  men.  This  condition  we  shall  find 
engaged  spirits  of  zeal  and  courage  to  meet  it.  The  other 
condition  was  a  strong  and  stern  hand  of  rule  over  those 
who  not  being  parties  to  the  experiment,  were  none  the 
less  to  be  compelled  by  authority,  laws,  and  penalties  to 
conform  to  it.  And  here  the  experiment  was  wrecked,  — 
/some  may  even  say,  disgraced,  brought  under  contempt, 
as  it  involved  oppression,  harsh  and  cruel  measures,  not 
distinguishable  from  spiritual  tyranny  working  through 
merciless  and  inhuman  barbarities. ) 

The  only  claim  which  the  experiment,  as  we  review  its 
method  and  working,  has  upon  our  study,  our  discriminat 
ing  judgment  and  possibly  upon  our  restraint  of  censure, 
is  in  its  devout  sincerity  of  purpose,  in  the  unfaltering 
belief  of  those  engaged  by  it  that  they  were  not  following 
any  fancy  or  hallucination  of  their  own,  but  were  gra 
ciously  and  potently  taken  into  the  service  of  the  Being 


22  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

whom  they  revered  with  a  submission  that  was  rather  awe 
and  dread  than  love. 

One  may  be  prompted  to  ask,  What  relative  place  in  the 
series  of  schemes  and  experiments  which  have  helped  to 
instruct  us  in  civil  and  political  science  is  to  be  assigned 
to  this  of  a  Puritan  Commonwealth  ?  We  are  to  study 
the  trial  of  it  after  its  failure  and  utter  discomfiture.  Its 
chief  value  then  for  us,  as  a  lesson,  is  as  it  bears  upon  the 
fundamental  principles  of  government.  What  have  we 
come,  after  all  previous  trial  and  theorizing,  to  accept  as 
the  basis  of  civil  government  and  legislation  ?  The  Puri 
tan  found  it,  as  common  law,  in  a  Book  containing  the 
revealed  will  and  commandments  of  God.  We  may  safely 
affirm  that  the  failure  of  the  Puritan  experiment  has  dis 
credited  that  basis,  and  that  it  will  never  again  be  adopted 
or  sanctioned.  Whatever  may  be  the  regrets,  the  affirm- 
ings,  or  the  denials  of  those  whose  beliefs  are  inherited 
from  the  Puritans  on  having  to  face  the  following  state 
ment,  candor  requires  its  utterance,  — /that  neither  from 
natural  nor  revealed  religion  will  any  people  in  Christendom 
henceforward  be  satisfied  to  draw  their  constitutions,  laws, 
or  principles  of  government.  \  There  is  much  debating  the 
question  whether  this  or  that  people  make  up  "  a  Chris 
tian  nation,"  and  whether  we  have,  or  ought  to  have,  "God 
in  our  Constitution."  (in  vain  should  we  name  Him  in  the 
Constitution  if  lie  is  not  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the 
people :  if  He  be  there,  His  name  may  be  omitted  from 
the  paper.  The  practices  of  so-called  Christian  nations, 
in  their  jealousies,  diplomacy,  oppressions,  outrages,  and 
wars,  are  hardly  redeemed  by  a  complimentary  phrase)  If 
the  failure  of  the  Puritan  experiment,  so  sincerely  tried, 
has  taught  the  world  one  great  lesson,  it  is  that  all  govern 
ments  must  be,  as  they  really  are,  administered  on  human 
and  mundane  principles  and  sanctions. 

I  have  defined  in  strong  terms,  and  without  qualifica 
tions,  what  I  fully  believe  to  have  been  substantially  the 


BOSTON,   AND    PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  23 

religious  aim,  with  its  Biblical  model  and  statute-book, 
adopted  by  the  founders  of  Massachusetts.  Any  qualifi 
cations  which  that  statement  may  require  as  to  the  date, 
the  distinctness  of  purpose,  the  avowal  of  it,  the  clearness 
with  which  all  its  conditions  were  apprehended  and  ac 
cepted, —  and  especially  the  proportion  of  the  whole  num 
ber  of  the  first  comers  here  who  were  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  it,  —  will  engage  attention  further  on.  I  have  stated 
the  consecrated  aim  and  scheme  as  the  basis  of  the  enter 
prise,  and  as  mastering  the  responsible,  confidential,  and 
controlling  leaders  and  guides  of  it. 

And  here  I  may  frankly  avow,  with  the  reasons  which 
have  persuaded  and  convinced  me  in  my  decision,  that  I 
take  Jolin_\Yiathr.op .as.. the  witness  and  exponent  of  the 
leading  aim  in  the  planting  and  early  administration  of 
this  Colony.  He  was  for  a  score  of  years  its  chief  citizen, 
and  for  eleven  years  its  Governor.  Among  many  men  of 
lofty,  devout,  and  pure  spirits,  it  seems  to  me  that  he  was 
the  noblest  and  the  best,  —  the  one  of  them  all  to  be  loved 
and  honored  for  religious  graces  and  human  virtues,  for 
his  fine  simplicity  of  sincerity,  and  for  his  grand  vigor  of 
constancy.  No  writer  on  our  early  history  has  grudged  or 
failed  to  pay  to  him  an  exalted  tribute.  Some  of  them 
have  dropped  censures  or  strictures  upon  some  traits  of 
his  character  and  some  incidents  of  his  administration 
with  which  I  cannot  fully  sympathize,  and  the  justice  of 
which  I  cannot  admit  without  qualification.  Any  shadow 
cast  upon  him  as  sharing  in  the  limitations  and  supersti-  f 
tions  of  his  time  and  .surroundings  is  that  part,  it  may  be, 
of  a  faithful  portraiture  which  comes  from  floating  clouds, 
and  not  from  the  rays  which  illumine  character.  In  one  of 
the  public  squares  of  this  city  is  a  statue  of  John  Winthrop 
as  the  "  Founder  of  Massachusetts,"  with  the  Bible  in  one 
hand,  and  the  Charter  in  the  other.  Another,  a  seated 
statue  of  him  in  Puritan  garb,  the  habit  in  which  he 
lived,  is  in  the  Chapel  of  the  cemetery  of  Mount  Auburn, 


24  THE    PURITAN   AGE. 

where  now  repose  the  ashes  of  thousands  of  those  of  the 
lineage  of  the  fathers.  A  third  statue  of  him,  one  of  the 
two  of  its  foremost  men  furnished  by  several  States  of 
the  nation,  is  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  The  public 
highway,  the  cemetery  chapel,  and  the  marble  halls  of  the 
palatial  centre  of  our  government  thus  distribute  and 
gather  the  tributes  of  posterity  to  one  than  whom  no  wor 
thier  of  our  race  ever  lived  on  the  earth.  His  Vandyke 
portrait  hangs  in  the  chamber  of  our  State  Senate.  His 
Journal,  or  History,  from  his  own  hand  and  pen,  is  the 
earliest,  the  most  communicative,  and  the  most  precious 
of  our  historical  relics.  We  know  him  more  thoroughly, 
more  searchingly,  in  thought,  heart,  and  life,  than  we  do 
any  one  of  his  contemporaries.  When  we  note  the  serious, 
grave,  and  sober  earnestness  of  Winthrop,  the  fond  and 
tender  yearnings  of  his  affection  and  lofty  devotion  to 
wife,  children,  and  friends,  we  must  recognize  elevated 
and  manly  qualities  which  are  not  to  be  depreciated  by 
the  limitations  of  temporary  superstition.  In  his  writings 
we  meet  the  utterance  of  all  the  pious  emotions  and  senti 
ments,  and  all  the  words  and  phrases,  which  have  come  to 
be  called  cant;  but  no  considerate  person  would  apply 
that  term  to  anything  from  his  pen,  except  in  the  better 
meaning  of  the  word,  as  the  singing  of  a  devout  soul. 
There  are  shocking  entries  in  his  Journal  in  the  exposure 
of  vice,  folly,  and  poor,  wretched  delusions  ;  but  they  were 
written  in  a  chaste  spirit,  and  will  harm  only  unchaste 
eyes  and  hearts. 

Our  respect  for  Winthrop  is  warmly  engaged  by  the 
candor  and  magnanimity  of  spirit  manifested  by  him  in  the 
treatment  of  even  some  of  the  most  truculent  of  those  who 
brought  plausible  or  only  censorious  complaints  against 
his  acts  or  policy.  The  reader's  admiring  regard  is  fre 
quently  drawn  to  him  by  his  modest  humility  in  admitting 
his  own  mistakes  and  occasional  excesses  of  a  spirit  of  self- 
confidence.  We  know  of  the  particulars  of  the  sharp  con- 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  25 

tention  which  he  had  with  the  testy  Dudley  only  from  what 
he  has  himself  written  about  it.  In  a  manly  tone  he  con 
fesses  that  for  some  things  he  was  censurable.  And  when 
he  records  in  other  cases  that  opinion  and  judgment  were 
not  on  his  side,  he  adds  no  plea  for  self-justification,  and 
never  yields  to  rancor.  We  find  in  his  Journal  such 
avowals  as  these,  in  recording  some  disputatious  passages:. 
"  He  had  been  over-sudden  in  his  resolutions  ; "  u  he  did 
arrogate  too  much  to  himself,  and  ascribe  too  little  to 
others  ; "  he  had  dropped  "  an  expression  which  was  not 
becoming  him,  but  a  fruit  of  the  pride  of  his  own  spirit ;" 
and  his  hope  was  that  he  might  be  "  more  wise  and  watch 
ful  hereafter."  l  A  judicial  estimate  of  character  and  of  a 
full  and  closed  career  will  lay  its  stress,  not  upon  the  frail 
ties  which  led  to  error,  but  upon  the  nobleness  of  spirit 
which  confessed  them. 

Hutchinson,  without  naming  his  authorities,2  writes  : 
"  Some  writers  say  that  upon  his  death-bed,  when  Mr. 
Dudley  pressed  him  to  sign  an  order  of  banishment  of  an 
heterodox  person  he  refused,  saying,  '  he  had  done  too 
much  of  that  work  already.' '3  So  far  as  the  testimony  of 
that  unsavory  character  Capt.  John '  Underbill  —  who  had 
stood  before  Winthrop  both  in  court  and  in  church  as 
a  moral  culprit  and  a  heretic  —  is  of  worth,  it  is  to  the 
same  effect.  Writing  in  1660  to  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
who  refused  to  approve  the  severest  measures  against  the 
Quakers,  Underbill  says :  "  Gife  me  lefe  for  your  forther 
incorrigement  from  percekuchon,  to  mind  you  of  my  fare 
well  words  from  your  nobell  father,  of  happi  memori,  to 
me,  and  hafe  taken  such  imprschon  throg  the  sperrit  of 
God  in  mee,  that  I  dare  not  meddel  with  that  pepell  [the 
Quakers]  ;  but  lefe  them  to  there  libberti  grantted  by  the 
gud  ould  Parlement  of  Eingland."  3  The  same  valuable 

1  Vol.  ii.  p.  117. 

2  History  of  Massachusetts,  i.  151. 

8  Winthrop  Papers,  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vii.  186. 


26  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

military  officer,  but  dubious  citizen  and  church-member, 
had  before  written  to  the  elder  Governor  Winthrop,  as  fol 
lows  :  "  Sir,  give  me  leave  to  make  a  serious  protestation 
for  you.  I  have  seene  thatt  in  you  thatt  hath  confirmed  me 
that  you  are  as  deare  to  God  as  the  aple  of  his  eye;  though 
these  late  passages  [the  Antinomian]  have  much  stumbled 
me,  yett  I  hould  you  the  same  as  before,  as  deare  to  God 
as  ever,  though  perhaps  for  the  tyme  being  you  were  left 
to  temptation,  as  Hezechia,  <fcc."  J 

There  is  a  most  pertinent  suggestion  to  be  made  in  refer 
ence  to  those  shocking  and  revolting  details  about  "  mon 
strous  births  "  and  other  dismal  occurrences,  not  needing 
closer  report  here,  which  the  pure  and  devout-souled  Win 
throp  entered  in  his  Journal.  They  had  all  their  signi 
ficance  to  him  solely  from  the  reverent  and  awe-stricken 
uoint  of  view  in  which  he  regarded  them,  as  direct  indica 
tions  of  the  startling  judgments  of  a  special  providence  in 
^designating  offenders  and  their  bold  sins.  In  fact,  this  is 
simply  one  of  the  many  evidences  of  his  supreme  veneration 
for  the  Bible,  in  which  he  read  of  many  similar  cases  of  the 
judgment  of  God  upon  sinners  in  sudden  deaths,  startling 
calamities,  and  loathsome  diseases.  Nor  those  in  the  Old 
Testament  only,  but  also  in  the  New, —  as  in  the  case  of 
Herod  (Acts  xii.  23),  where  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord  smote 
him,  and  he  was  eaten  of  worms."  We  may  call  it  stark 
superstition  in  Winthrop,  but  it  was  not  a  finding  satis 
faction  in  such  sad  tragedies,  nor  a  vengeful  temper,  that 
moved  him  to  record  them. 

The  severest  reflections  that  have  been  cast  upon  Win 
throp  have  been  for  his  loss  of  poise  and  equanimity  in  the 
trial  of  Ann  Hutchinson.  In  that  dismal  dissension  he  did 
not  wholly  surmount  the  personal  aggravations  which  it 
had  brought  to  him.  We  may  well  realize  how  he  had 
been  badgered,  vexed,  and  grieved  by  misconstruction, 
and  by  the  pitting  against  him  of  a  rival  whose  abettors 

1  Winthrop  Papers,  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vii.  171. 


BOSTON,    AND    PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  27 

were  less  lovable  than  himself.  More  than  any  other  of 
the  parties  concerned,  Winthrop  viewed  the  matter  and  the 
results  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  schism,  when  they  reached 
the  minds  of  common  people,  as  a  muddle  of  unintelligible 
absurdities,  with  a  mingling  of  mean  personal  preferences 
and  prejudices.  The  tongue  of  a  woman  is  the  sharpest  of 
all  the  weapons  with  which  even  the  calmest  of  men  in  an 
encounter  of  grievances  has  to  deal ;  and  Winthrop  thought 
he  saw  duplicity  and  prevarication  in  the  inexhausted  per 
sistency  of  that  harassed  woman.  But  after  all  just  allow 
ance  and  abatement,  Winthrop  stands  as  not  only  the  I 
founder  and  the  real  promoter  of  this  Colony,  but  also  as 
its  wisest,  most  faithful  counsellor,  fosterer,  and  ever  loyal 
friend,  the  sincerest,  purest  spirit  of  the  Puritan  Theocracy. 
He  met  with  a  clear  conscience  and  a  calm  dignity  all  mis 
apprehensions  and  bufferings  of  rivalry  from  his  associates, 
and  all  the  temporary  chills  of  popularity  from  an  incon 
stant  but  finally  a  revering  constituency.  He  sank  his 
whole  inherited  and  acquired  estate  in  the  support  of  the 
Colony,  so  completely,  that  it  had  to  assume  the  support  of 
his  infant  son  after  his  decease  in  penury.  The  pathetic 
letter  written  near  his  death-chamber,  signed  by  magis 
trates  and  elders  in  tender  consultation,  to  be  sent  by  an 
Indian  runner  through  the  woods  to  his  son  in  Connecticut, 
is  a  touching  and  loving  tribute  of  mourning  hearts  to  his 
virtues  and  services.1  The  reference  in  the  Records  of  the 
Court  to  his  death  and  character  is  brief,  but  it  is  sufficient. 
Some  of  the  Colony's  powder  had  been  used  without  official 
authority  in  volleys  at  his  funeral :  "  The  Courte  doth  think 
meete  that  the  powder  spent  on  the  occasion  should  never 
be  required  againe,  &  thankfully  acknowledg  Boston's  great, 
worthy,  due  love  and  respects  to  the  late  honored  Governor, 
which  they  manifested  in  solemnising  his  funerall,  whom 
wee  accompted  worthy  of  all  honor."  2  Had  he  been  called 

1  The  letter  is  given  in  facsimile  in  "  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop," 
vol.  ii.  p.  395.  2  Records,  ii.  270. 


28  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

upon  for  that  service,  Roger  Williams  would  have  been  the 
most  willing,  as  well  as  the  most  gifted,  in  offering  for 
Wmthrop  —  never  to  him  but  a  friend,  though  a  censuring 
magistrate  —  the  richest  and  sweetest  of  epitaphs. 

In  stating,  therefore,  as  I  have  done  in  such  positive 
terms,  the  paramount  and  constraining  purpose  of  the 
responsible  leaders  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  to  try  an 
experiment  of  government  not  of  their  own  devising,  for 
the  exercise  of  their  own  authority  or  for  their  own  thrift, 
but  one  of  which  God  should  be  the  supreme  magistrate 
and  the  Bible  the  statute  book,  I  rely  mainly  and  with 
entire  conviction  on  the  repeated  and  emphatic  avowals  of 
Winthrop,  that  such  was  his  aim  and  the  aim  of  his  chief 
associates.  Of  this  the  evidence  and  witnesses  will  come 
before  us  in  the  following  pages.  And  I  lay  stress  upon 
the  distinctive  and  fundamental  point,  that  they  were  acting 
winder  the  constraint  of  a  divine  obligation  and  covenant, 
and  not  as  being  at  perfect  liberty  to  use  their  own  wit  or 
Wisdom  in  plans  of  their  own.  They  followed  instructions ; 
^hey  obeyed  commands  ;  they  accepted  with  loyal  reverence 
a  pattern  and  model  not  merely  given  to  but  imposed  upon 
them  as  literally,  in  its  principles  and  details,  as  was  the 
Jewish  Commonwealth  founded  and  administered  on  in 
spired  directions  to  Moses.  If  this  view  be  correct,  as  for 
myself  I  fully  believe  that  it  is,  then  the  responsibility  of 
the  Puritan  authorities  for  the  practical  working  of  the 
experiment  is  certainly,  to  a  degree,  qualified.  They  could 
say,  as  in  fact  they  did  say,  to  many  victims  of  their  severe 
discipline,  "  You  are  not  simply  withstanding  us,  breaking 
our  laws,  defying  our  authority,  —  you  are  rebelling  against 
God ;  and  as  we  have  put  ourselves  under  His  rule  and 
statutes,  we  intend  to  hold  you  to  the  same  subjection." 
In  the  forecast  of  our  great  civil  convulsion  the  plea  of 
obedience  to  "  the  higher  law  "  was  advanced  by  those  who 
set  at  nought  civil  statutes  and  ordinances.  The  Govern 
ment  neither  recognized  that  "  higher  law "  itself,  nor 


ROSTON,   AND    PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  29 

would  allow  its  citizens  to  prefer  it  for  their  following. 
But  the  Puritan  magistrates  did  not  only  accept,  they 
revered,  that  higher  —  the  highest  —  law  themselves  ;  and 
one  pf  ..its  requisitions  on  them  was  to  compel  other  people 
to  obey  it.  It  would  follow,  therefore,  that  those  who  cen 
sure  and  condemn  these  Puritans  should  go  below  their 
bigotry,  austerity,  and  severity,  and  challenge  them  for' 
their  credulity,  their  folly,  even  their  impiety,  in  commit 
ting  themselves  to  a  belief  and  covenant  their  allegiance 
to  which  would  compel  them  to  unjust  and  barbarous 
dealings  with  their  fellow-men. 

Before  proceeding  further  in  the  development  of  the 
scheme  and  experiment  here  put  on  trial,  and  following  it 
into  the  processes  and  measures  of  a  stern  rule  which  make 
our  Puritan  annals  so  unattractive  and  even  repulsive  to 
many  who  have  studied  them,  the  writer  of  these  pages 
would  avail  himself  of  the  privilege  of  stating  distinctly 
his  own  aim  and  purpose,  to  which  he  will  endeavor  strictly 
to  confine  himself.  His  sole  intent  is  to  narrate  histori 
cally,  with  but  little  of  criticism  or  censure,  and  nothing 
of  advocacy  or  vindication,  the  incidents  and  proceedings 
attendant  and  consequent  upon  the  formation  and  adminis 
tration  of  a  Biblical  form  of  government  in  Massachusetts. 
Often  enough  will  occasion  force  itself  upon  a  reader, 
prompting  him  to  comment  censoriously  and  even  bitterly 
upon  the  severities  of  the  Puritan  rule.  The  reader  is  free 
to  make  these  criticisms  ;  the  writer  will  try  for  himself 
to  restrain  the  expression  of  them  :  his  purpose  is  faithful 
and  candid  narration,  not  criticism  or  judgment.  Such  as 
have  written  upon  the  early  history  of  Massachusetts  with 
a  view  of  setting  forth  the  principles  and  measures  of  its 
government  in  the  light  of  its  contemporary  era,  and  of 
allowing  the  Puritan  convictions  and  purposes  to  have  a 
fair  presentation,  have  been  very  unjustly  charged  with  a 
championship  of  them,  with  palliating  their  severity  and 
intolerance,  and  defending  them  against  the  reproaches  and 


30  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

judgments  pronounced  upon  them.  More  common,  on  the 
other  side,  are  the  free  expressions  of  contempt,  of  harsh 
invective,  and  even  of  abhorrence,  which  have  been  visited 
on  the  Puritan  rule,  —  as  our  early  missionaries  to  India, 
China,  and  Japan  sent  home  hideous  idols  as  symbols  of 
the  whole  religion  and  life  of  those  countries.  (  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  no  intelligent  and  candid  person  of  our  own 
times,  whose  opinion  is  of  any  worth  or  weight,  would 
undertake  to  vindicate  the  Puritan  policy  as  practicable, 
reasonable,  or  righteous.  \  The  problem  to  be  dealt  with  is 
simply  this :  The  scheme  put  on  trial  here  was  one  that 
offered  itself  in  utmost  sincerity  and  loftiness  of  purpose 
to  a  company  of  men  for  their  own  faithful  and  heroic 
acceptance,  at  whatever  cost  of  zeal,  sacrifice,  and  self- 
denial.  The  integrity,  purity,  and  devotion  of  the  prime 
agents  in  the  scheme  is  beyond  all  question.  The  scheme 
itself,  in  its  own  age,  so  far  from  seeming  impracticable 
and  sure  to  involve  oppression  and  injustice,  —  as  at  its 
very  first  view  it  appears  to  us,  —  presented  itself  as  one 
that  carried  with  it  a  divine  obligation  and  command  that 
it  should  be  put  on  trial,  with  earnestness  and  resolution. 
So  far  away  are  we  from  the  tone  of  thought  and  the  use 
of  words  characteristic  of  the  Puritans,  that  we  may  hardly 
apprehend  the  idea,  which  was  none  the  less  in  their  minds, 
that  the  scheme  they  were  putting  on  trial  here  was  not 
theirs  but  God's. 

The  only  possible  attraction  which  an  historical  student 
in  these  days  can  find  in  rehearsing  the  policy  and  rule  of 
Puritanism  in  early  Massachusetts,  and  the  only  relief  of 
which  he  can  avail  himself  in  facing  its  repelling  features, 
i"s~4n-4he  attempt  to  trace  the  chronological  and  philosophical 
relations  of  Puritanism  in  the  development  of  theories,  be 
liefs,  and  experiments  in  human  society  and  in  government. 
If  one  who  has  but  a  superficial  knowledge  and  apprehen 
sion  of  the  principles  and  spirit  of  Puritanism  is  disposed  to 
pronounce  upon  their  rule  that  they  must  have  been  inborn 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  31 

inquisitors  and  fiends  of  cruelty,  he  must  be  left  free  to  hold 
that  opinion  or  advised  to  enlighten  it.  The  writer  will  here 
frankly  anticipate  the  statement  of  his  own  strong  convic 
tion  —  to  be  subsequently  more  fully  set  forth  —  that  the 
Puritans  were  ill-guided  and  misled  by  their  estimate  of, 
and  way  of  using,  the  Bible.  Let  it  be  allowed  —  for  in 
reason  no  one  will  deny  the  proposition  —  that  in  their  age 
and  under  their  circumstances  they  held,  and  had  reasons 
satisfactory  to  themselves  for  holding,  that  the  Bible  was 
the  statute  book  of  God  for  the  rule  of  human  life,  and 
offered  the  only  means  of  man's  salvation.  Influences 
which  had  long  been  working  in  the  currents  of  thought, 
and  the  repudiation  of  the  authority  of  church  and  priest 
hood,  had  as  a  substitute  brought  the  Bible  into  supreme 
and  well-nigh  idolatrous  regard,  as  the  sole  means  ^f  com- 
munication  between  God  in  heaven  and  men  011  the  earth. 
How  the  Puritans  formed  their  exalted  estimate  of  it  and 
to  what  uses  they  applied  it,  will  by  and  by  invite  our 
attention.  I  can  but  repeat  now  the  statement,  even  at  the 
risk  of  shocking  some  readers,  that  the  Puritans  were  be 
guiled  into  the  worst  of  their  errors  of  policy,  bigotry,  and 
intolerance,  by  their  belief  in  and  their  attempt  to  follow 
the  teachings  which  they  found  in  the  Bible.  i'A  single 
illustration  of  what  is  meant  in  this  frank  statement  may 
be  offered  here.  Everything  in  the  Bible  had  to  them  the 
inspiration  and  infallibility  of  God.  In  that  book  are  these 
two  positive  prohibitions :  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch 
to  live  "  (Ex.  xxii.  18)  ;  "  There  shall  not  be  found  among 
you  a  witch"  (Deut.  xviii.  10).  Belief  in  witchcraft  is  an 
extinct  delusion  for  all  intelligent  and  enlightened  per 
sons  ;  they  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  it  impossible  that 
a  man  or  woman  should  enter  into  a  covenant  with  the 
Devil,  who  on  his  part  should  invest  them  with  an  infernal 
power  of  mischief.  Those  who  seek  to  conserve  anything 
of  the  literal  authority  of  the  Bible  interpret  those  pas 
sages,  not  as  positively  warranting  a  belief  in  witchcraft, 


32  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

i 

but  as  interdicting  all  pretenders  to  necromancy  or  the 
"  black  art."  But  the  Puritans  —  and,  for  that  matter, 
all  who  had  the  same  belief  as  theirs  about  the  Bible  — 
took  no  such  liberties  with  its  letter  and  teaching.  They 
believed  it  to  be  as  possible  for  a  man  or  a  woman  to 
enter  into  a  covenant  with  the  Devil  as  it  was  for  them 
to  enter  into  a  covenant  with  God.  Mark  the  words  of 
that  high  authority  in  English  law,  Sir  William  Blackstone, 
written  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century  after  the  last 
trial  of  a  witch  in  New  England,  though  such  trials  still 
continued  in  Europe.'  Blackstone  wrote  :  "  To  deny  the  pos 
sibility —  nay,  actual  existence  —  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery 
is  at  once  flatly  to  contradict  the  revealed  Word  of  God  in 
various  passages  in  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments." 

The  inane  assertion,  so  often  flippantly  repeated,  that  the 
Massachusetts  colonists  came  here  to  seek  and  to  provide  a 
field  for  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  then 
proved  faithless  to  their  profession  by  securing  the  right 
for  themselves  and  denying  it  to  others,  is  simply  false  to 
all  the  facts  of  the  case.  What  is  now  really  meant  by  the 
phrase  "  liberty  of  conscience  "  was  something  which  those 
Puritans  regarded  with  shuddering  abhorrence.  It  might 
with  much  more  truth  be  said  that  the  leaders  oj  the  colony 
came  here  to\J:>e_rid  of  the  liberty  of  conscience^which  was 
working  and  showing  its  fruits  in  England,  as  will  appear 
on  our  future  pages.  Nor  is  it  an  adequate  interpretation 
of  their  errand  here  to  say  that  they  were  seeking  liberty 
even  for  their  own  consciences.  That  liberty  was  already 
pledged  and  fettered,  —  put  under  bonds  and  limitations  ; 
it  was  held  in  subjection  to  a  stern  and  exacting  rule  of 
life  and  duty,  found  not  in  their  own  thinkings  and  will- 
ings,  but  in  the  "  Word  of  God."  This  complete  abnega 
tion  of  the  privilege  and  license  which  we  associate  with 
liberty  of  conscience,  must  be  kept  in  mind  in  all  our 
reading  about  the  beliefs  and  doings  of  these  Puritans. 
Fallen  and  wrecked  as  in  their  belief  the  nature  of  man 


BOSTON,    AND    PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  33 

was,  they  would  not  entertain  the  thought  that  any  one, 
however  earnest  he  might  be,  could  find  his  rule  within 
his  own  resources  of  thinking  and  believing.  They  read 
the  sentence  repeated  several  times  in  the  Book  of  Judges, 
that  in  the  lack  of  any  supreme  authority  "  every  man  did 
that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,"  as  equivalent  to 
saying  that  he  did  what  was  wrong  in  the  eyes  of  every 
body  else.  It  may  thus  appear  that  a  championship  of 
Puritan  legislation  and  administration,  leaving  nothing 
weak  or  defective  in  it,  would  involve  a  defence  of  their 
estimate  of  and  way  of  using  the  Bible.  One  who  has 
faith  and  disposition  for  that  argument  may  undertake  it ; 
it  is  not  intended  here. 

The  first  object  of  a  government  established  in  civil  so 
ciety,  allowed  to  be  alike  needful  and  lawful,  is  to  provide 
for  its  own  security  and  peace.  Reflection  would  at  once 
suggest  what  experience  has  so  abundantly  illustrated,  — 
that  this  aim  and  function  of  government,  instead  of  pre 
senting  at  any  time  fixed  and  permanent  conditions  for  its 
discharge,  must  be  constantly  adjusted  to  changing  circum 
stances.  The  question,  always  a  practical  one  for  discus 
sion  and  decision,  is,  How  much  of  individual  liberty  must  j 
be  denied  or  restrained  for  the  common  safety  and  welfare  ?  / 
In  other  words,  we  have  to  ask,  What  portion  of  the  whole 
range,  action,  and  use  of  human  life  —  beginning  even 
with  the  holding  and  utterance  of  opinions  and  beliefs, 
and  including  private  conduct,  habits,  all  individualities 
of  character,  use  of  time,  relaxations,  amusements,  and 
self-indulgences  —  can  rightfully  be  brought  under  the  sur 
veillance  and  control  of  civil  law,  or  may  safely  be  exempt 
from  its  oversight  ?  In  no  civilized  community  which  has 
a  continuous  history  in  its  progress  and  development  can 
this  question  be  opened,  discussed,  and  traced  through  more 
striking  and  interesting  phases  of  its  practical  trial  than 
through  the  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  Massachusetts. 

The  curious  fact  is  at  once  presented  to  our  notice  that 


34  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

/civil  government  on  the  soil  of  Massachusetts  began  with 
the  very  utmost  stretch  of  restraint  upon  every  exercise  of 
the  liberty  of  the  individual,  and  has  been  brought  on  by 
the  development  of  circumstances  to  the  utmost  indulgence 
of  freedom  —  some  think  even  to  a  dangerous  laxity  —  in 
loosening  that  restraint  by  law.  If  one  was  concerned  to 
trace  in  details  and  stages  that  process  from  restraint  to 
laxity  in  the  relations  between  law  and  individuals,  the 
records  and  the  statute  book  of  this  State  would  furnish 
him  with  exhaustive  materials.  Legislation  and  govern 
ment  here,  enforced  by  the  sanction  and  approbation  of 
those  whom  the  first,  and  ever  since  the  most  honored,  of 
our  governors  called  the  wisest  and  the  best,  though  the 
fewest,1  began  with  the  ma^JQJiiin-- ^ 
and  exaction  exercised  over  each  individual  inhabitant. 
Admitting,  evidently  grudgingly,  that  it  could  not  interfere 
with  opinions  and  beliefs  privately  held,  it  positively,  arid 
with  penalties,  interdicted  the  utterance  of  them  in  any 
way  of  dissent  or  protest  against  those  which  authority 
had  pronounced  to  be  right  and  true.  The  acting  accord 
ing  to  these  individual  dissents  of  belief  and  opinion 
was  visited  by  a  gradation  of  inflictions  even  up  to  capital 
punishment. 

VThere  was  no  incident,  circumstance,  or  experience  of 
the  life  of  an  individual,  personal,  domestic,  social,  or  civil, 
still  less  in  anything  that  concerned  religion,  in  which  he 
was  free  from  the  direct  or  indirect  interposition  of  public 
authority.  His  civil  rights  depended  upon  his  acceptance 

1  In  a  letter  written  by  Winthrop  to  Hooker  —  not  now  extant,  but  con 
temporaneously  quoted  —  in  reference  to  the  establishment  of  government  in 
Connecticttt,  Winthrop  says  :  "The  best  part  of  a  community  is  always  the 
least;  and  of  that  least  part  the  wiser  are  still  less."  Another  equally  strong 
statement  of  the  Governor  is  this:  "  Democracy  is  among  most  civil  nations 
accounted  the  meanest  and  worst  of  all  forms  of  government,  .  .  .  and  histories 
record  that  it  hath  always  been  of  least  continuance  and  fullest  of  troubles.'1 
(Life  and  Letters,  ii.  427.)  Yet.  under  his  lead  was  born  a  Commonwealth 
the  completest  of  democracies. 


BOSTON,    AND    PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  35 

of  a  covenant  of  faith  and  fellowship  in  a  churclrivjth  a 
formulated  system  of  doctrine ;  and  in  that  fellowship  he 
subjected  himself  to  a  rule  of  discipline  additional  to  the 
secular  code  which  bound  him  to  obedience.*  <Jf  he  could 
not  obtain  membership  in  a  church,  or  preferred  to  remain 
outside,  he  was  none  the  less  taxed  for  its  support,  and 
mulcted  if  he  did  not  attend  regularly  upon  its  teaching 
and  worship.  There  was  no  secrecy  allowed  for  his  home 
and  domestic  privacies.  If  husband  and  wife  preferred  to 
live  apart,  or  were  resigned  to  having  an  ocean  flow  between 
them  for  any  extended  period  of  time,  they  were  reckoned 
with  by  an  inquisition,  and  compelled  to  an  "  orderly  dis 
posal  of  themselves."  There  was  not  a  child  in  any  house 
that  was  not  also  a  ward  under  public  guardianship  to 
make  sure  of  the  faithful  performance  of  parental  duty. 
A  fractious  and  rebellious  child  might  by  law  be  brought 
to  the  gallows.  ;^Men  and  women  were  watched  and  dealt  • 
with  if  apparently  living  beyond  their  means  or  station, 
or  with  no  visible  and  profitable  "  calling  "  or  occupation, 
or  if  idling,  gossiping  about,  or  giving  the  least  suspicion 
of  scandal.  Sumptuary  laws  forbade  gay  or  luxurious  j 
apparel,  lascivious  freedom  of  manners,  and  light  speech, 
especially  in  those  of  the  humbler  sort.  All  "  affairs  of 
the  heart"  in  young  people  must  be  gravely  laid  before  their 
elders./  Trom  sunset  of  Saturday  to  sunset  of  Sunday  were 
solemn  Sabbath  hours,  during  which  all  noise  must  be 
hushed,  all  toil,  and  especially  all  worldly  pleasure,  must 
cease.  No  strolling  was  to  be  allowed  in  street  or  field, 
no  social  visiting.  During  the  whole  Puritan  era  there 
was  no  place  for  a  public  game  or  amusement.  All  revelry 
and  carousing  were  prohibited.  The  only  chance  for  any 
thing  like  rollicking  and  fun  was  in  connection  with  mili 
tary  trainings,  though  these  began  and  ended  with  prayers) 
The  first  indulgences  which  persevcringly  asserted  them 
selves  at  the  College  Commencement  season  it  was  vainly 
attempted  to  arrest  in  their  development  by  an  interdict 


36  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

of  "  plum-cake  "  on  the  occasion,  grimly  enforced  by  a  sup 
plementary  edict  against  those  who  "  went  about  to  evade 
it  "  by  introducing  "  plain  cake."  ( House-raisings  and 
harvestings  gave  vent  for  the  repressed  impulses  of  the 
elders  ;  corn-huskings,  in  the  places  and  materials  of  them, 
afforded  opportunities,  always  however  "  on  the  sly,"  for 
the  irrepressible  vivacities  of  the  young.. } 

Obvious  enough  to  us  is  it  that  this  Puritan  experiment 
of  government,  as  making  the  magistrates  the  interpreters 
and  representatives  of  the  divine  will  and  authority,  in 
volved  elements  of  spiritual  tyranny  and  the  suppression  of 
soul  liberty.  But  it  was  not  so  to  them,  nor  would  they  at 
once  have  admitted  that  the  ill-working  of  their  rule  dis 
credited  its  sovereignty.  In  the  four  episodes  under  their 
administration,  to  be  rehearsed  in  these  pages,  we  shall 
find  that  their  severities  were  exercised  upon  two  quite 
different  classes  of  offenders.  One  of  these  were  tres 
passers,  intruders,  who  not  having  any  proprietary  rights 
in  the  Company,  not  freemen  or  citizens,  could  not  claim 
protection,  indulgence,  or  privilege,  but  might  be  disposed 
of  by  being  ordered  out  of  the  jurisdiction.  Of  this  class 
was  Roger  Williams,  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  Com 
pany,  nor  a  citizen  with  the  franchise.  So  also  were  the 
missionary  Quakers,  regarded  by  the  authorities  as  tramps, 
or  vagabonds.  This  class  of  persons,  the  Puritans  argued, 
had  no  right  to  complain  of  the  laws,  because  they  were 
free  to  find  release  from  them  by  going  elsewhere.  More 
serious,  however,  was  the  case  when  they  had  to  deal  with 
quite  another  class.  These  were  full  partners  and  pro 
prietors  in  their  enterprise,  enfranchised  citizens,  vowed 
and  pledged  to  one  another  under  the  same  religious  cove 
nant,  full  believers  in  the  principles  of  the  Theocracy, 
with  their  homes,  their  property,  their  kinships,  and  all 
their  affections  and  interests  identified  with  the  commu 
nity.  Among  those  arose  dissent  and  variance  about  some 
doctrinal  beliefs  and  religious  usages,  breaking  the  unity 


BOSTON,   AND    PUBLIC    MEETINGS.  37 

of  the  faith  and  the  uniformity  of  discipline.  Such  as 
these  were  the  Antiiiomians  and  the  Baptists.  In  dealing 
with  these  the  Puritan  administration  was  put  to  the  se 
verest  trial,  and  proved  to  be  utterly  hostile  to  soul  liberty, 
intolerant,  and  sooner  or  later  intolerable. 

These  exposures,  however,  were  to  be  reached  by  experi 
ence,  not  anticipated.  Nor  were  they  to  be  at  once  accepted 
as  rightful  and  not  avertible,  till  an  effort  and  a  struggle, 
however  painful  and  ineffective,  had  been  made  to  bring 
the  whole  power  of  the  Theocratical  government  to  sus 
tain  its  legislation.  Do  not  the  resolution,  the  persistency, 
even  the  defiant  blinding  of  their  own  eyes  to  the  distress 
ing  consequences  of  their  measures,  move  us  to  recog 
nize  the  loyalty  of  the  magistrates  to  their  own  covenanted 
obligations  ?  Certainly  theirs  was  no  skin-deep,  superficial 
attachment  to  their  principles.  These  had  struck  down 
into  conscience  and  faith,  and  would  have  been  fictions 
and  follies  had  they  not  been  fought  for.  Only  an  actual 
demonstration  of  the  impracticability  of  their  scheme,  and 
that  demonstration  enforced  by  externally  disabling  them 
from  persevering  in  it,  could  effect  its  discomfiture.  f  Con 
scientious  errors  in  belief  and  practice  bring  with  them 
their  own  penalties ;  and  these  have  a  self-corrective  influ 
ence.  Very  little  satisfaction  or  justice  is  there  in  visiting 
our  censure  or  contempt  on  those  who  in  the  light  —  or 
rather  the  darkness  —  of  their  own  times  were  beclouded 
with  delusions  and  falsehoods  from  which  the  progressive 
illuminations  of  our  age,  to  which  the  wisest  of  us  have 
individually  contributed  so  little,  but  of  which  we  all  enjoy 
the  results,  have  released  us.  Truth  and  freedom  advance 
by  the  interlocking  of  the  largest  and  the  smallest  wheels 
of  the  mechanism  of  time.  If  our  laments  and  reproaches 
must  be  pronounced  upon  those  who  have  been  the  agents 
of  error,  dissension,  and  discord  in  any  age,  we  must  be 
sure  to  go  so  far  back  as  to  reach  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  original  offenders.  It  would  be  some  satisfaction,  for 


38  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

example,  if  we  could  summon  before  us  as  culprits  some 
of  the  earliest,  the  most  ancient,  and  conspicuous  agents  of 
this  mischief, —  say,  for  instance,  those  who  planned  and 
began  to  build  the  Tower  of  Babel  for  the  avowed  intent  of 
circumventing  God.  On  them  we  might  charge  the  sources 
of  all  the  ills  and  discordances  that  have  followed  the 
baffled  attempts  of  men  to  work  in  harmony,  with  consent 
of  purpose  and  a  common  plan.  Those  thwarted  builders, 
falling  out  in  their  plans,  and  by  the  confusion  of  their 
speech  no  longer  able  to  understand  one  another,  are  re 
sponsible  for  the  long  and  infinite  succession  of  embar 
rassments  and  difficulties,  not  only  about  words,  but  about 
meanings  and  ideas.  It  is  they  who  are  blamable  for  the 
confusion  of  languages,  the  need  of  translators  and  inter 
preters,  the  verbosity  and  tautology  of  legal  documents 
and  litigation,  and  the  misunderstandings  in  conversation 
and  correspondence. 

The  Massachusetts  Puritans  acceded  to  their  place  and 
stage  in  this  development  of  truth  struggling  to  outgrow 
error.  We  can  in  part  understand  and  interpret  our  own 
age.  But  if  we  wish  candidly  and  fairly  to  understand 
them,  we  must  not  throw  back  two  and  a  half  centuries 
the  standards  of  intelligence  and  judgment  of  our  own 
time  as  applicable  to  them.  Amid  the  resources  and  appli 
ances,  the  comforts  and  luxuries,  of  our  own  mode  of  life 
we  may  sometimes,  turning  from  the  records  which  the 
fathers  have  left  us,  and  with  the  easy  help  of  the  imagina 
tion,  fall  into  musings  upon  their  external  lot  and  expe 
riences.  The  contrasts  will  be  strong  and  strange.  Even 
in  their  native  country  there  had  been  much  of  rudeness 
and  hardness  in  their  physical,  social,  and  domestic  condi 
tions.  But  for  the  first  generation  here  how  numerous 
were  the  wants  and  needs,  how  deficient  the  resources  and 
supplies  !  A  grim  wilderness  environed  them,  with  real 
and  visionary  dangers  in  its  dark  shadows.  Marshes, 
morasses,  unbridged  streams,  and  devious  trails  made  in- 


f,   AND 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  39 

tercourse  difficult  and  all  travel  tedious.  The  numerous 
inventories  left  to  us  of  household  goods,  of  farm  imple 
ments,  and  of  apparel  are  often  amusing  illustrations  of 
simple  thrift,  and  of  the  frugality,  paucity,  and  rudeness  of 
their  furnishings,  which  still  were  of  such  relative  value  as 
to  be  carefully  appraised.  The  tortures  of  the  medical  and 
surgical  practice  of  those  days  were  fearful  for  endurance. 
Our  light  foot-gear  and  water-proof  protection  for  snow 
storms  and  tempests  found  substitutes  for  them  in  boots 
o±  hide  smeared  with  grease,  and  doublets  of  leather  which 
drank  in  the  water,  so  that  they  had  to  be  cast  aside  as  the 
weight  increased.  The  spoils  of  the  hunter  and  safety 
from  the  Indian  foe  were  won  by  the  long  gun,  supported 
by  a  "  rest,"  and  fired  by  a  match-lock.  What  would  the 
housewife  and  the  forest-traveller  of  those  days  have  been 
ready  to  give  for  a  bunch  of  friction-matches,  the  price  of 
which  for  us  is  one  cent !  The  lack  of  any  currency,  save 
Indian  shell-peagc,  caused  all  traffic  to  be  by  barter  of 
produce  or  labor  at  shifting  values.  The  entire  lack  of  all 
the  delights  of  intellectual  intercourse  and  of  literature, 
save  those  of  the  most  lugubrious  character,  must  have 
had  a  most  depressing  influence  upon  the  spirits  of  those 
who  were  so  intently  brooding  over  dismal  theological 
problems. 

Now,  it  never  occurs  to  us  to  blame  those  whose  time 
and  conditions  of  lifp  subjected  them  to  these  external 
limitations  and  hardships  !  we  simply  commiserate  them, 
while  we  complacently  enjoy  our  own  often  unappreci 
ated  resources.  Can  we  not  indulge  some  of  the  same 
commiserating  but  uncensorious  sentiments  toward  those 
who  were  two  or  three  centuries  before  us  in  the  hard, 
slow  tasks  of  delving  in  the  mines  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  truth  ?  Unhappily,  all  men  and  all  things  in 
this  world,  at  least,  are  judged  by  their  faults.  If  we  our 
selves  hope  for  a  more  considerate  or  a  more  lenient  judg 
ment  at  another  tribunal,  we  ought  to  give  the  benefit  of 


40  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

it  to  those  whom  we  bring  from  the  distant  past  to  be  tried 
by  ourselves.  There  are  some  of  generous  and  tolerant 
minds,  even  under  our  severest  contempt  of  bigotry  and 
utmost  deliverance  from  it,  through  liberality  and  radical 
freedom,  who  will  try  at  least  to  distinguish  devoutness 
and  earnestness  of  purpose,  in  consecrating  themselves  to 
a  sacrificial  work,  though  it  presented  itself  clouded  in 
error  and  delusion. 

The  Puritan  rule  has  been  almost  exclusively  censured 
for  the  severity  with  which  it  bore  upon  those  outside  of 
and  hostile  to  its  covenant.  But  one  who  is  familiar  with 
its  internal  and  secret  workings  can  hardly  fail  to  notice  its 
restless,  morbid,  and  afflictive  influence,  even  upon  its  most 
loyal  and  devout  disciples.  Its  strain  upon  human  nature 
was  intense,  rigid,  and  unrelaxing.  Fidelity  to  the  cove 
nant  rule  was  constantly  requiring  more  and  more  of  con 
straint,  suggesting  self-reproaching  dreads  of  a  falling 
away  of  faith  and  zeal.  To  have  found  any  cheering, 
radiant  delight  in  their  communings  and  conferences,  they 
must  have  been  trained  to  conceptions  like  those  which 
that  logical  Calvinist  Jonathan  Edwards  had  reached, 
when  he  set  forth  that  among  the  qualities  of  the  happi 
ness  of  the  redeemed  would  be  the  satisfaction  of  witness 
ing  the  sufferings  of  the  damned.  Whence,  then,  came 
the  sincerity,  the  earnestness,  and  constancy  of  the  Puri 
tans?  Through  that  very  able  and  profoundly  thoughtful 
work  of  Mr.  Lecky,  on  the  "  Rise  and  Influence  of  Ration 
alism  in  Europe,"  runs  the  sad  and  depressing  strain,  in 
assertion  and  evidence  of  the  statement,  that  errors  con 
nected  with  religion  have  had  vastly  more  power  over 
human  beings  than  its  grandest  and  most  illuminating 
truths.  His  line  of  proof  for  his  assertion  may  be  readily 
conceived.  Beginning  with  the  most  grovelling  and  be 
sotted  superstitions,  and  following  down  all  false  and 
craven  dreads  which  have  enslaved  and  tormented  human 
beings  through  delusions,  credulities,  and  clouded  imagina- 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  41 

tions,  he  shows  how  the  thrall  and  spell  of  sway  which 
they  have  exercised  over  men  has  been  measured  by  their 
foulness,  their  falsity,  their  unreality.  Men  have  been 
willing  to  suffer  and  bear  and  do  the  most,  in  the  name 
of  religion,  for  what  was  most  unworthy  of  their  sacrifices. 
The  hook-swingers  of  India,  the  immolators  and  victims 
of  human  offerings,  ascetics  of  every  type,  pilgrims,  self- 
fiagellants,  monks,  nuns,  hermits,  and  also  Puritans,  have 
graduated  their  zeal  by  the  form  and  phase  of  error 
which  have  beguiled  them.  And  Mr.  Lecky  presents,  as 
the  converse  of  this  sad  recital,  the  chilling  and  disheart 
ening  view,  that  the  effect  of  all  enlarging,  expanding, 
elevating,  and  liberalizing  tenets  of  religion  is  to  quench 
enthusiasm  and  earnestness,  to  induce  apathy,  sybarit 
ism,  self-indulgence,  and  to  repress  many  noble  impulses. 
Happily  his  lament  is  subject  to  this  very  serious  qualifi 
cation,  which  relieves  its  dismal  burden.  Superstitions, 
delusions,  and  falsities,  accepted  as  religious  beliefs  and 
prompting  to  actions  of  obedience  conformed  to  them,  have 
indeed  had  a  more  constraining  power  over  men  than  have 
lofty  and  liberalizing  truths  substituted  for  them.  But 
this  power  has  not  been  a  power  for  good ;  rather  has  it 
been  a  power  for  evil,  working  fatefully  and  malignantly 
on  the  passions  of  men,  clouding  their  intelligence,  per 
verting  their  natural  human  instincts,  and  enslaving  them 
to  mean  and  debasing  practices.  Enthusiasm,  earnestness, 
full  sincerity,  and  painful  self-inflictions  may  prove  the 
power  that  has  had  sway  over  men  through  these  supersti 
tions,  credulities,  and  delusions ;  but  the  mere  potency  of 
their  influence  in  no  way  relieves  its  dismal  workings. 
And  as  to  the  converse  statement  held  before  us  by  Mr. 
Lecky,  that  emancipation  from  these  religious  errors,  by 
enlarged,  liberal,  and  rational  views,  seems  to  reduce  earn 
estness  and  enthusiasm,  to  foster  laxity  and  self-indulgence, 
—  one  may  well  ask  if  truth,  when  substituted  for  falsity  in 
religious  tenets,  does  not  displace  false  and  baneful  super- 


42  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

» 

stitions,  not  merely  to  leave  the  heart  and  mind  empty  of 
all  quickening  activity  and  fervors,  but  to  fill  the  vacancy 
with  cravings  for  something  worthy  of  belief  and  loyal 
service  ?  ["Liberalism  and  rationalism  in  religion  have  cer 
tainly  proved  the  efficiency  of  their  power  over  men  in 
having  released  them  from  the  thrall  of  poor  and  craven 
superstitions/in  breaking  galling  fetters,  in  lighting  up  the 
chambers  of  thought  and  imagination,  and,  though  still 
leaving  the  deep  mysteries  of  existence  in  shadow,  substi 
tuting  hope  and  trust  for  gloom  and  despair. 

Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  still  less  grieved  over,  if  the 
relief  found  in  liberal  and  rational  views,  displacing  cre 
dulities  and  superstitions,  reduces  the  intensity  of  belief, 
of  self-sacrifice  for  visionary  ends,  arid  relaxes  the  con 
straint  upon  personal  freedom,  even  to  the  borders  of 
self-indulgence.  Religion,  in  its  deeper  and  most  serious 
influences,  finds  its'  'opportunity  of  power  over  individuals 
in  trying  and  sorrowful  and  bereaving  experiences  ;  and 
so  in  companies  of  human  beings,  times  of  persecution,  of 
endurance,  of  exile,  and  of  enterprises  of.  grave  moment 
repress  all  lighter  sentiments,  and  give  to  life  and  effort  a 
sombre  tone  and  aspect.  The  heart  resumes  its  cheer 
when  these  restraints  are  withdrawn,  as  the  rustic  whistles 
when  he  has  cleared  the  dark  woods  or  passed  the  ghostly 
grave-yard.  The  grievous  complaints  and  regrets  which 
fill  the  sermons  of  the  preachers  in  Massachusetts  a  cen 
tury  after  the  settlement,  over  the  decay  of  the  early  piety 
and  the  decline  of  the  ancient  fervor,  are  simply  lugubrious 
comments  upon,  instead  of  grateful  recognitions  of,  the 
release  of  beliefs  and  life  from  the  gloom  and  severities, 
the  bugbears  and  delusions  of  the  early  age.  Further  on 
in  these  pages  we  shall  have  to  admire  the  heroic  and 
high-pitched  fervors  of  constancy,  even  to  the  scaffold, 
with  which  the  missionary  Quakers  bore  their  testimony ; 
and  we  shall  note  how  large  a  part  of  that  testimony,  with 
the  bufferings  which  it  brought  upon  them,  consisted  in 


BOSTON,   AND   PUBLIC   MEETINGS.  43 

oddities  and  extravagances  of  conduct  which  had  no  vital 
connection  whatever  with  their  noble  and  illuminating 
principles.  But  mark  how  one  of  their  writers,  glowing 
with  the  old  spirit,  mourns  their  degeneracy  just  one 
hundred  years  after  their  first  coming  to  Massachusetts. 
He  thus  draws  a  censorious  contrast  "  concerning  the 
difference  between  the  former  Quakers,  that  suffered  Per-J 
secutions,  and  these  in  this  day  " :  — 

"  If  we  may  know  them  by  their  Fruits,  they  were  two  manner 
of  People :  the  first  often  going  to  Meeting  Houses  and  bearing 
a  godly  testimony  after  the  Speaker  had  done  [not  always  waiting 
for  that,  however]  ;  also  Teaching  and  Exhorting  at  other  public 
places,  for  which  they  suffered  much  Persecution,  which  they  took 
joyfully,  being  upheld  by  the  Power  of  God.  And  these,  only 
holding  Meetings  of  their  own  in  a  formal  way,  as  other  Profes 
sors  do ;  having  a  form  of  Godliness,  and  not  the  Power  and  Life 
thereof,  as  the  suffering  Quakers  had  ;  minding  earthly  things, 
being  adulterated  and  living  in  the  friendship  of  the  World,  which 
is  enmity  with  God.  So  these,  not  having  the  spirit  as  the  first 
Quakers  had,  are  no  more  to  be  compared  with  them  than  a  dead 
Tree  may  be  compared  to  a  living  Tree." * 

Which  signifies,  that  when  the  Quakers,  losing  their  origi 
nal  fervors,  ceased  to  annoy  other  people,  and  quietly  pur 
sued  their  own  way  of  life,  they  became  degenerate  and 
dead. 

In  following  the  tracks  of  the  early  navigators  to  our 
side  of  the  great  ocean,  we  note  their  long  voyages,  through 
tempests,  fogs-,  and  ice-barriers,  in  their  cramped  vessels, 
with  salt  food  and  foul  water,  and  watch  them,  as  without 
charts,  save  such  as  they  make  themselves,  they  lie-to  and 
send  off  the  shallop  to  feel  their  way  through  reefs  and 
soundings.  They  were  the  pioneers  of  passengers  in  the 
shuttles  which  now  cross  the  seas  in  a  week  with  their 

1  "An  addition  to  the  book,  entitled  '  The  Spirit  of  the  Martyrs  revived,'  " 
by  Joseph  Bolles. 


44  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

luxuries  and  pleasure-seekers.  Chemical  science  keeps  the 
record  of  its  votaries  who  have  been  smothered  or  blown 
up  by  their  own  gases  ;  medical  science  shows  us  a  long 
trial  of  experiments  for  killing  or  curing.  All  along 
through  the  ages  we  can  trace  the  lines,  divided  and  con 
trasted,  drawn  by  those  who  in  the  profoundest  sincerity 
of  earnest  conviction  received  as  the  intensest  realities 
what  to  us  have  not  the  interest  even  of  traditions.  The 
same  process  is  realized  in  many  extended  human  lives, 
and  we  call  it  one  of  disillusioning. 

We  are  to  trace  this  process  as  illustrated  in  the  Puritan 
experiment  here.  There  are  many  facts  which  might  be 
adduced  to  prove  that  only  the  iron  hand  of  a  stern  rule 
and  discipline  could  have  carried  the  colony  over  the  ven 
tures  and  risks  of  its  beginning.  It  is  not  worth  any  one's 
time  or  skill  to  open  special  pleadings  for  the  limitations, 
excesses,  or  severities  of  the  Puritans.  A  portion  of  them 
may  be  accounted  to  exigencies  of  time  and  circumstance. 
If  beyond  this  it  comforts  any  one  to  visit  upon  them 
objurgatory  epithets,  he  is  free  to  do  so ;  the  doing  it 
may  relieve  his  own  feelings,  and  his  blows  will  fall  upon 
insensate  and  unrevenging  victims. 

We  are  now,  after  introducing  the  actors  with  their 
principles  and  purposes,  to  review  a  stern  and  tragic  period 
of  history.  My  own  sensitiveness  of  nerves,  and  resources 
and  allowances  of  sympathy  and  tolerance  have  been  so 
heavily  taxed  by  much  that  I  have  had  to  read  and  think 
about  in  preparing  these  pages,  that  I  shall  not  apologize 
or  ask  pardon  for  anything  in  them  that  may  wound  or 
offend  others. 


II. 


THE    GOVERNOR    AND    COMPANY   OF    THE 
MASSACHUSETTS   BAY. 

IN  view  of  the  outcome  of  the  experiment  put  on  trial 
by  the  founders  of  Massachusetts,  in  setting  up  here  a 
Commonwealth  patterned  after  a  Biblical  model,  a_question 
presents  itself  to  us  equally  interesting  and  important  in 
our  judgment  of  their  motives  and  of  their  scheme.  The 
question  is,  whether  at  the  start,  before  coming  hither, 
they  had  the  intent  in  their  minds,  essentially  and  sub 
stantially  matured,  with  a  plan  and  method  for  accomplish 
ing  it ;  or  whether  the  scheme  was  developed  by  stages,  as 
new  impulses  moved  them  and  new  means  and  opportunities 
were  offered  to  be  used  by  them.  In  trying  to  dispose  of 
the  alternative  views  here  suggested,  we  shall  have  to  trace 
the  process  by  which  what  was  originally  organized  in 
England  as  a  company  for  pursuing  objects  of  trade  in  this 
Bay,  became  transformed  into  an  agency  for  establishing 
a  Commonwealth  in  which  religion  should  predominate  in 
civil  affairs.  In  tracing  this  process  we  shall  have  to  note 
that  the  transfer  of  the  patent  and  the  setting  up  of  ad 
ministration  under  it  on  this  soil  were  first  prompted  by 
religious  motives  coming  in  to  influence  the  chief  movers 
in  the  enterprise,  and  that  these  religious  motives  steadily 
acquired  the  ascendency. 

The  territory  included  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  patent 
had  been  at  the  disposal  of  the  Council  for  New  England. 
After  having  been  held  by  various  individuals  and  asso- 


46  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

elates  as  grantees  and  proprietors,  it  was  transferred  to  the 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  Originally 
there  were  but  six  grantees  ;  of  these,  only  Humphrey  and 
Endicott  appear  in  our  local  history.  These  six  admitted 
additional  associates  as  members  of  their  Company,  and 
through  the  influence  of  friends  at  Court  the  Company 
obtained  a_royal  charter  in  1628-29.  Endicott  was  sent 
with  companions,  ministers,  and  servants  of  the  Company 
to  establish  a  local  government  here,  in  subordination  to 
that  in  England  ;  he  was  furnished  with  a  copy  of  the 
charter,  and  received  advice  and  orders  from  his  superiors. 
We  can  trace  on  the  records  of  the  Company  nearly  every 
stage  and  incident  in  the  councils  and  motives  which  led 
to  the  transfer  of  the  patent  and  government.  Where 
there  is  obscurity,  light  comes  from  other  sources.  The 
proposition  for  removal,  however  it  may  have  been  privately 
agitated,  was  first  made  by  the  Governor  (Cradock)  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Company  July  26,  1629.  In  the  debate 
upon  it  the  seriousness  of  the  proposition  was  realized,  and 
the  decision  was  deferred.  The  members  present  were  de 
sired  "  privately  and  seriously  to  consider  thereof,"  to  set 
down  each  his  reasons,  to  be  reduced  afterward  to  heads ; 
meanwhile  "  they  are  desired  to  carry  this  business  secretly, 
that  the  same  be  not  divulged."  August  28  a  special  meet 
ing  of  the  Company  was  held  to  consider  the  proposi 
tion  ;  committees  were  designated  to  weigh  the  reasons 
on  either  side,  and  to  present  the  results  on  the  morrow. 
August  29,  reports  having  been  listened  to  and  considered, 
the  question  was  put  as  to  transfer  of  patent  and  govern 
ment,  "  soe  it  may  be  done  legally."  "  Erection  of  hands  " 
showed  "  the  general  consent  of  the  Company  "  in  favor. 
September  29  an  order  was  passed  "to  take  advice  of 
learned  counsell  whether  the  same  may  be  legally  done 
or  noe." 

There  is  no  record  as  to  any  consultation  of  counsel  or 
of  advice  given  on  this  point.     Hence  it  has  long  passed 


GOVERNOR   AND    COMPANY   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.        47 

current  in  the  history  and  in  incidental  notices  of  these 
important  proceedings,  that  without  a  shadow  of  legality, 
and  in  daring  contempt  of  authority,  the  Company  surrep 
titiously  stole  away  from  England  with  its  patent  to  set  up 
an  unlicensed  authority  on  the  soil  of  New  England,  —  thus 
beginning  that  series  of  usurpations  and  wrongs  which  were 
matters  of  complaint  and  hearing  at  Court,  and  which  have 
been  discussed  in  charges  and  defences  by  our  historians. 

This  imputation  has  been  satisfactorily  set  aside.  Among 
a  mass  of  valuable  family  and  public  documents  which  came 
to  light  after  long  oblivion  in  1860,  belonging  to  the  Win- 
throps,  was  a  very  remarkable  paper  written  by  the  first 
Governor,  in  which  he  positively  and  distinctly  states  that 
when  the  charter  was  in  preparation  it  was  sought  "  to  keepe 
the  chief  Government  in  the  hands  of  the  Company  resid- 
inge  in  England,  and  so  this  was  intended;  and  with  much 
difficulty  we  got  it  abscinded."1  This  effectually  disposes 
of  a  plausible  charge,  and  accounts  for  the  absence  in  the 
charter  of  any  provision  of  the  place  of  administration  under 
it.  It  may  also  be  mentioned  here  in  anticipation,  that 
when,  in  1633,  Gardiner,  Morton,  and  Radcliffe  stirred  up 
Gorges  and  Mason  to  bring  charges  before  the  Privy 
Council  on  account  of  rough  treatment  which  they  had  re 
ceived,  and  Humphrey  and  Saltonstall  appeared  to  defend 
the  Company  here,  —  the  result  was  that  the  Council,  thus 
fully  informed  as  to  the  administration  in  the  Bay  colony, 
made  no  complaint  of  the  transfer  from  England.  So  far 
from  it,  the  Council  promised  that  if  the  government  here 
was  administered  as  was  professed  when  the  charter  was 
granted,  it  should  receive  the  royal  favor. 

We  must  leave  the  records  here  for  a  moment  to  take 
note  of  a  transaction  having  a  very  significant  relation  to 
the  matters  to  be  brought  to  our  notice  when  we  return  to 
them.  We  know  well  what  came  of  the  enterprise  conse 
quent  on  the  transfer  of  patent  and  government.  We  are 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop  (2d  ed.),  vol.  ii.  p.  443. 


48  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

concerned  now  to  trace  the  coming  into  the  affairs  of 
a  trading  company  of  that  strong  religious  leaven  which 
was  first  to  build  and  then  to  subvert  a  Biblical  common 
wealth. 

In  July,  1629,  John  Winthrop,  not  yet  even  a  member 
present  at  any  meeting  of  the  Company,  was  riding  with 
his  brother-in-law  Downing  to  Semperingham  to  visit  Isaac 
Johnson  to  confer  about  the  Massachusetts  enterprise.  To 
his  son  John  in  London,  just  returned  from  foreign  travel, 
he  communicates  his  thoughts  about  emigration.  There 
had  been  in  circulation  among  a  group  of  congenial  friends 
a  certain  very  pregnant  paper  entitled  "  General  Considera 
tions  for  the  Plantation  of  New  England,  with  an  Answer 
to  several  Objections."  This  paper,  to  which  reference 
will  be  made  in  another  connection,  has  a  most  vital  rela 
tion  to  the  enterprise  in  hand,  and  to  what  came  of  it.  It 
begins  thus :  "  It  will  be  a  service  to  the  Church  of  great 
consequence  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  those  parts  of  the 
world."  It  complains  that  all  the  churches  of  Europe  are 
brought  to  desolation  and  calamities  ;  there  are  troubles, 
corruptions,  decays  of  piety,  disturbances,  and  threaten- 
ings  of  evil  in  England.  Objections  are  orderly  presented 
and  answered  from  Scripture,  and  largely  Old  Testament 
authorities.  To  an  objection  drawn  from  the  failure  of 
previous  attempts  at  colonization,  it  is  replied  that  their 
"  mayne  end  was  carnall  and  not  religious."  Let  note  be 
taken  of  the  stress  laid  in  the  argument  "to  raise  and 
support  a  particular  church,"  —  repeated  afterward  thus: 
"  The  service  of  raysinge  and  upholdinge  a  particular  church 
is  to  be  preferred  before  the  betteringe  of  some  parte  of  a 
church  alreadye  established."  Here  is  certainly  an  inti 
mation  of — what  afterward  was  so  fully  realized  on  this 
soil  —  the  views  working  in  the  minds  of  Winthrop  and  his 
sympathizers  as  to  the  relations  between  the  sort  of  church 
which  they  had  in  mind  and  that  to  which  they  then  be 
longed,  which  they  believed  needed  "  betteringe."  The 


GOVERNOR  AND  COMPANY  OP  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.    49 

authorship  of  this  paper  has  by  some  been  attributed  to 
White,  the  Puritan  rector  of  Dorchester.  But  the  weight 
of  evidence  would  seem  to  assign  it  to  Winthrop,  as  found 
in  its  fullest  form  among  his  documents. 

While  the  question  of  the  transfer  was  pending  before 
the  Court,  a  most  decisive  step  was  taken  to  advance  the 
projected  enterprise  of  removal  to  New  England.  A  meet 
ing  was  held  at  Cambridge,  Aug.  26,  1629,  in  which  — 
undoubtedly  preceded  by  full  and  earnest  discussion  —  an 
agreement  bearing  twelve  signatures  was  signed.  This 
agreement  is  simple  but  positive  in  its  terms.  It  was  en 
tered  into  by  all  "  upon  the  joint  confidence  we  have  in 
each  other's  fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man 
of  us  would  have  adventured  it  without  assurance  of  the 
rest."  In  order  that  each  of  those  thus  to  be  pledged,  with 
others  who  may  join  them,  "  may  without  scruple  dispose  of 
his  estate  and  affairs  as  may  best  fit  his  preparation  for  this 
voyage,  it  is  fully  and  faithfully  AGREED  amongst  us,  and 
every  one  of  us  doth  hereby  freely  and  sincerely  promise 
and  bind  himself,  in  the  word  of  a  Christian  and  in  the 
presence  of  God,"  to  be  ready  in  person  and  family,  with 
provisions,  etc.,  to  embark  for  the  Plantation  by  the  first  of 
the  next  March  at  such  port  as  the  Company  should  agree 
upon,  "to  pass  the  Seas  (under  God's  protection),  to  inhabit 
and  continue  in  New  England :  Provided  always,  that  be 
fore  the  last  of  September  next  the  whole  Government, 
together  with  the  Patent  for  the  said  Plantation,  be  first, 
by  an  order  of  Court,  legally  transferred  and  established  to 
remain  with  us  and  others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the  said 
Plantation."  A  forfeit  of  £3  for  every  day's  default  is  to 
be  paid  by  each,  except  those  detained  by  reason  accepted 
by  three-fourths  of  the  signers. 

Of  the  twelve  names  subscribed,  John  Winthrop's  stands 
the  ninth.  Those  of  the  others  best  known  to  us  are 
Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Dudley,  William  Vassall, 
Isaac  Johnson,  John  Humphrey,  Increase  Newell,  and 

4 


: 


50  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

William  Pynchon.1  How  much  of  negotiation,  conference, 
correspondence,  and  balancing  of  reasons  and  arguments 
had  been  engaged  in  maturing  this  covenant  we  can  well 
conceive,  though  it  is  known  to  us  only  fragmentary.  The 
conditions  were  exact,  the  decision  summary.  The  legal 
transfer  of  government  and  patent ;  the  parting  with  estates 
in  England  to  meet  the  charges  of  emigration  and  the  new 

^settlement ;  the  removal  of  families  and  the  identification 
henceforward  of  life  and  hope  and  service  with  a  spot  in 

/  the  wilderness  beyond  the  dread  ocean,  —  these  were  the 
chief  terms  of  the  covenant  religiously  entered  into  by  men 
of  lofty  integrity  and  high  and  devout  purpose.  Each  put 
his  whole  confidence  in  the  possession  of  such  qualities  by 
his  associates.  It  may  be  that  our  minds  will  revert  to 
these  conditions  of  sacrifice  and  obligation  when  further  on 
in  these  pages  we  shall  have  to  note  the  ingenuity,  the  per 
sistency,  and  even  the  keen  strategy  by  which  they  defended 
themselves  against  plotters  to  their  harm  in  England  and 
the  harsh  severity  of  their  dealings  with  troublcrs  within. 

After  the  resolve  for  the  transfer  of  the  government  there 
were  immediate  and  marked  changes  in  the  membership  of 
the  Company,  —  a  selling  out  of  stock  by  some  and  a  pur 
chase  by  others.  The  name  of  John  Winthrop  appears  for 
the  first  time  on  the  records,  Sept.  19,  1629.  He  was  not 
then  present  at  the  meeting,  but  was  named  as  on  a  com 
mittee  for  business  of  the  Company.  That  the  changes  in 
membership  and  ownership  of  stock  were  largely  due  to 
the  coming  in  of  the  serious  and  religious  movements  of 
the  Company,  by  which  those  who  had  been  wont  to  meet 
to  discuss  matters  of  traffic  were  coming  under  the  spell  of 
piety,  is  not  a  mere  inference.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Court, 
Nov.  25, 1629,  on  motion  of  Mr.  White,  it  was  resolved  — 

"  That  this  business  might  be  proceeded  in  with  the  first  intention, 
which  was  cheifly  the  glory  of  God,  and  to  that  purpose  that  their 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  pp.  344,  345. 


GOVERNOR   AND    COMPANY   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.        51 

^ 

meetings  might  bee  sanctyfied  by  the  prayers  of  some  faith  full  min 
isters  resident  heere  in  London,  whose  advice  would  bee  likewise 
requisite  upon  many  occasion,  the  Court  thought  fltt  to  admitt 
into  the  freedome  of  this  Company  Mr.  Jo :  Archer  and  Mr.  Phil 
lip  Nye,  ministers  heere  in  London,  who  being  heere  present  kindly 
accepted  thereof.  Also  Mr.  Whyte  did  recommend  unto  them  Mr. 
Nathaniell  Ward  of  Standon." 

These  ministers  voted  into  the  freedom  of  the  Company 
were  earnest  Puritan  divines.  And  then  and  there,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Company  in  London  on  the  eve  of  its  trans 
fer  hither,  was  initiated  the  sacred  custom  —  ever  since 
perpetuated  in  what  has  succeededTo~that  Company  as  the 
Colony,  the  Province,  and  the  State  of  Massachusetts  —  of 
opening  the  proceedings  of  its  Legislature  with  prayer.  Nor 
only  this,  for  in  every  rapidly  multiplying  municipality  de 
rived  by  authority  of  that  parent  Legislature,  the  same 
usage  has  prevailed  at  the  opening  of  town-meetings. 

On  August  29  the  decision  had  been  made  by  the  Court 
that  the  government  of  persons  should  be  set  up  in  New 
England,  while  the  government  of  trade  was  retained  in 
London.  But  this  arrangement  was  compromised.  Win 
throp  was  present  at  the  Court  for  the  first  time  October 
15  ;  and  on  the  20th,  as  Cradock  could  not  go  to  New 
England,  it  was  necessary  to  choose  a  new  Governor.  The 
Court  "  having  received  extraordinary  great  commenda 
tions  of  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  both  for  his  integritie  and  suf- 
ficiencie,"  his  name  was  put  in  nomination,  with  those  of 
Saltonstall,  Johnson,  arid  Humphrey  ;  and  "  Mr.  Winthrop 
was,  with  a  generall  vote  and  full  consent  of  this  Court, 
by  erection  of  hands,  chosen  to  bee  Governor." 

He  wrote  to  his  wife  —  as  he  afterward  said  in  public 
with  modest  dignity  —  that  he  was  taken  by  surprise,  and 
thought  himself  unequal  to  the  high  trust  committed  to 
him.  But  the  Court  had  judged  wisely  in  their  estimate  of 
the  man,  and  his  career  and  service  for  the  score  of  years 
yet  left  to  him  proved  that  for  virtues  and  capacities,  for 


52  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

consecration  of  heart,  and  for  the  heroisms  of  patience  and 
sacrifice,  his  election  had  a  higher  ratification.  From  the 
hour  in  which  Winthrop  assumed  this  leadership  in  labor 
and  responsibility  to  the  day  of  his  embarkation,  his  cares 
and  efforts  were  equally  varied  and  exacting.  There  is 
enough  extant  of  his  correspondence  at  the  time  to  show 
with  what  tender  affection  he  wrote  to  members  of  his 
family  when  separated  from  them  by  his  business  and 
when  preparing  for  parting  with  his  wife  and  such  of  his 
children  as  he  had  to  leave  to  follow  after  him  ;  also,  his 
letters  widely  scattered  to  enlist  others  in  his  enterprise, 
among  them  the  humble  and  dependent  as  well  as  those 
needful  as  mechanics,  engineers,  and  physicians,  —  indeed, 
to  those  of  a  wide  and  inclusive  range,  who  were  in  sym 
pathy  with  or  could  be  inspired  by  his  own  motives.  He 
was  then  forty-two  years  of  age. 

The  fleet  was  to  consist  of  eleven  ships,  and  included 
the  "  Mayflower,"  whose  fame  was  won  ten  years  before. 
We  must  leave  to  our  imagination  to  analyze  and  dispose 
the  elements  of  character  and  qualities  which  marked  in 
dividuals  and  classes  in  that  company  of  two  thousand 
souls.  Care  and  caution  had  been  exercised  to  the  ut 
most  possible  extent  in  selecting  healthful,  honest,  capable, 
and  well-disposed  persons  ;  but  what  was  needed  and  wrhat 
had  to  be  accepted  were  not  correspondent  terms.  We 
shall  doubtless  be  safe  in  surmising  that  there  were  less 
of  the  incongruous  and  mischievous  elements  of  humanity 
gathered  in  that  fleet  than  have  ever  before  or  since  been 
massed  together  in  enterprises  that  have  lured  men  in 
flocks,  —  from  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  through  the  early 
settlements  of  Virginia,  down  to  the  rushing  swarms  to 
the  gold  mines  of  California.  Nor  can  we  infer,  except 
through  the  developments  afterward  realized  here,  what 
proportion  of  the  whole  company,  below  the  rank  of  the 
most  earnest  and  responsible  leaders  of  the  enterprise, 
were  in  full  or  partial  sympathy  with  their  aims.  The 


GOVERNOR   AND   COMPANY   OF   MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.        53 

voyage  began  April  8,  1630.  Such  reports  as  we  have 
"oTconduct  and  experience  on  board  the  vessels  would  in 
dicate  that  it  was  without  turbulence,  with  orderly  and 
serious  observances. 

Before  the  leaders  of  the  Company  sailed  away,  they  had 
left  to  be  printed  and  circulated  in  England  a  document 
which  has  been  the  subject  of  much  critical  discussion 
among  historians,  and  has  been  turned  into  matter  of 
grave  censure  against  Wiuthrop  and  his  associates.  The 
ground  of  this  censure  is,  that  the  professions  of  tender 
and  affectionate  attachment  and  gratitude  to  the  Church 
of  England  expressed  in  the  document,  were  strangely  in 
consistent  with,  and  utterly  slighted  by,  the  course  which 
the  signers  at  once  adopted  in  the  church-method  insti 
tuted  and  administered  by  them  on  their  arrival  here. 
The  reflection  cast  upon  them  has  not  stopped  short  of  the 
charge  of  insincerity  and  hypocrisy.  We  must  seek  to 
throw  such  light  on  the  matter  as  a  dispassionate  state 
ment  of  the  facts  will  admit,  witli  such  comments  as  may 
suggest  themselves.  The  paper  is  entitled, — 

"  The  Humble  Request  of  His  Majesty's  Loyall  Subjects,  the 
Governor  and  the  Company  late  gone  for  New- England,  to  the 
rest  of  their  Brethren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England,  for 
the  obtaining  of  their  Prayers,  and  the  removal  of  suspicions  and 
misconstructions  of  their  Intentions." 

It  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that  the  publication  and 
free  circulation  of  this  paper  disposes  effectually  of  the  ab 
surd  charge  that  the  Company,  with  such  a  fleet  on  such 
an  enterprise,  stole  away  covertly  from  England.  The 
paper  is  addressed,  "  Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,"  and 
it  proceeds  upon  the  general  rumor  and  knowledge  of  their 
enterprise  as  a  reason  for  asking  prayers  and  blessings 
upon  it.  It  seems  to  me,  after  frhe  full  thought  and  study 
which  I  have  given  to  the  various  bearings  of  the  subject, 
that  we  may  wisely  begin  here  to  recognize  the  fact  —  to 


54  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

be   further   on   more   fully   illustrated  —  that   Winthrop's 
Company, 'like  the  other  Nonconformists,  made  a  distinc- 
f  tion  between  certain  prime  elements  and  qualities  and  cer- 
\  tain  secondary  matters  in  the  institution  and  administra- 
J  tion  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  some  of  which  they  were 
j  heartily  attached,  while  with  others  they  were  not  in  sym- 
I  pathy.      And  further,  that   the  Nonconformists  regarded 
Vthose   essentials  to  which   they  clung   as   infinitely    tran 
scending    those   incidental    features   which   they    rejected 
in  their  relations  to  the  ends  "of  religion  and.  piety.     How 
ever  this  may  have  been,  the  candid  reader  must  judge 
when  he  reviews  the  facts  and  professions  to  be  soon  set 
forth,  not  as  a  plea,  but  as  an  historical  summary.     The 
most   emphatic    statement   in   the   paper   before   us  is  as 
follows :  — 

"  And  howsoever  your  charity  may  have  met  with  some  occa 
sion  of  discouragement  through  the  misreport  of  our  intentions, 
or  through  the  disaffection  or  indiscretion  of  some  of  us,  or 
rather  amongst  us  (for  we  are  not  of  those  that  dream  of  perfec 
tion  in  this  world),  yet  we  desire  you  would  be  pleased  to  take 
notice  of  the  principals  and  body  of  our  Company,  as  those  who 
esteem  it  our  honour  to  call  the  Church  of  England,  from  whence 
we  rise,  our  dear  mother,  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  Coun 
try,  where  she  specially  resideth,  without  much  sadness  of  heart 
and  many  tears  in  our  eyes,  ever  acknowledging  that  such  hope 
and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common  salvation  we  have 
received  in  her  bosom  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts.  We  leave 
it  not,  therefore,  as  loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were  nour 
ished  there ;  but  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and  education,  as 
members  of  the  same  body,  shall  always  rejoice  in  her  good  and 
unfeignedly  grieve  for  any  sorrow  that  shall  ever  betide  her,  and 
while  we  have  breath  sincerely  desire  and  endeavour  the  continu 
ance  and  abundance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement  of  her 
bounds  in  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus." 

There  is  a  sentence  in  this  Address  which  does  not 
appear  to  have  engaged  the  attention  of  some  who  have 


GOVERNOR    AND    COMPANY    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.         5o 

most  severely  judged  the  signers  of  it,  —  the  leaders  of  the 
Company.  It  is  this  :  "  If  any  there  be  who  through  want 
of  clear  intelligence  of  our  course,  or  tenderness  of  affec 
tion  towards  us,  cannot  conceive  so  well  of  our  way  as 
we  could  desire,"  etc.  They  then  had  "  a  way "  of  their 
own  ;  and  this  may  have  had  some  relation  to  that  idea 
of  "  a  particular  church,"  referred  to  on  a  previous  page 
in  the  "  Considerations." 

It  is  not  out  of  place  here  to  interrupt  the  course  of 
comment  on  this  language  used  by  the  exiles  touching  their 
feelings  and  relations  to  the  Church  of  England,  by  quot 
ing  a  similar  expression  of  those  in  religious  sympathy 
with  them.  The  Rev.  Francis  Higginson,  a  graduate  of 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  while  settled  at  Leicester 
became  a  Puritan,  and  on  account  of  his  scruples  declined 
many  attractive  livings  offered  him  under  the  Establish 
ment.  He  had  been  invited  by  the  Bay  Company  in  1628 
to  go  in  its  service  as  minister  to  the  preparatory  settle 
ment  at  Salem.  Dreading  a  summons  before  the  High 
Commission  Court,  he  accepted,  and  arrived  at  Salem, 
June  29,  1629.  On  his  passage  hither,  as  he  left  the 
shores  of  England,  he  called  his  family  and  other  passen 
gers  around  him,  and  said  :  — 

"  We  will  not  say,  Farewell  Babylon  !  Farewell  Rome  !  but  we 
will  say,  Farewell  dear  England !  Farewell  the  Church  of  God  in 
England,  and  all  the  Christian  friends  there  !  We  do  not  go  to 
New  England  as  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England,  though 
we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  corruptions  in  it ;  but  we  go  to 
practise  the  positive  part  of  the  Church  reformation,  and  to  propa 
gate  the  Gospel  in  America."  l 

The  voyage  of  Winthrop  hither,  begun  April  8,  1630, 
was  closed  on  June  22.  Frequent  and  constant  religious 
exercises  of  catechism,  prayer,  and  preaching  on  Sundays 
and  week-days  must  have  equally  tried  the  patience  of 

1  Mather's  Magnalia,  book  iii.  p.  74. 


56  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

mariners  and  servants,  and  fed  the  joys  of  piety  in  the  con 
secrated  hearts  of  the  exiles.  One  is  left  to  infer  that 
they  did  not  follow  the  forms  of  the  Liturgy.  Higginson, 
the  minister  at  Salem,  who  as  just  noted  came  over  the 
preceding  year,  tells  us  in  his  Journal  that  his  ship's  com 
pany  marked  their  watches  u  with  singing  a  psalm,  and 
prayer  that  was  not  read  out  of  a  book."  1 

Among  the  papers  of  Winthrop  was  found  one  entitled 
"  A  Modell  of  Christian  Charity,"  written  on  the  ocean  on 
board  the  "Arbella."  As  he  was  wont  "  to  exercise  in  the 
way  of  prophesying,"  it  was  doubtless  made  by  him  to 
serve  the  use  of  a  sermon.  It  is  in  a  strain  of  gentle  and 
elevated  piety ;  and  while  it  confirms  all  our  estimate  of 
the  sweetness  and  nobleness  of  his  spirit,  it  reveals  most 
significantly  his  own  strengthening  conception  of  the  re 
ligious  intent  of  his  enterprise.  The  paper  is  crowded 
with  Scripture  references.  If  the  careful  and  candid  study 
of  our  history  leave  any  of  its  readers  in  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  religious  and  Biblical  character  of  the  Com 
monwealth  here  established  was  intended  from  the  first 
conception  of  it,  this  paper  should  help  the  decision. 

Winthrop  wrote  :  — 

"  The  work  we  have  in  hand  is  by  a  mutuall  consent,  through 
a  special  overvaluing  providence  and  a  more  than  an  ordinary 
approbation  of  the  Churches  of  Christ,  to  seek  ojut  a  place  of  co 
habitation  and  Consorteshipp  under  a  due  forme  of  Government, 
both  civill  and  ecclesiastical!.  In  such  cases  as  this,  the  care  of 
the  publique  must  pversway  all  private  respects.  .  .  .  Thus  stands 
the  cause  between  God  and  us.  We  are  entered  into  covenant 
with  Him  for  this  worke.  We  have  taken  out  a  commission.  The 
Lord  hath  given  us  leave  to  drawe  our  own  articles.  We  have 
professed  to  enterprise  these  and  those  accounts  upon  these  and 
those  ends.  We  have  hereupon  besought  Him  of  favour  and 
blessing.  Now  if  the  Lord  shall  please  to  heare  us,  and  bring  us 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  p.  237. 


GOVERNOR   AND    COMPANY    OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.        57 

in  peace  to  the  place  we  desire,  then  hath  hee  ratified  this  cove 
nant  and  sealed  our  Commission,  and  will  expect  a  strict  perform 
ance  of  the  articles  contained  in  it."  1 

We  certainly  can  be  at  no  loss  to  discover  what  was  the 
master  motive  of  Winthrop  in  his  enterprise,  nor  to  con 
ceive  what  sort  of  a  Church  and  State  he  had  in  view. 

— ^\ 
He  believed  that  his  Company  had  entered  on  a  covenant  \ 

with  each  other  which  was  at  the  same  time  a  Covenant  / 
with    God :    constancy    and   fidelity   exhibited   in   mutual 
love  were  the  terms  pledged.     The  enterprise  demanded 
resolution  of  spirit,  for  it  was  hazardous,  and  might  end 
in  disaster  ;   but  he  would  abide  by  it.     He  never  looked) 
backward  ;   he  never  saw  his  native  land  again.     Twelve  S 
years  after  the  arrival  here,  at  a  crisis  of  discouragement, 
very  many  of  his  associates,  under  the  same  pledges  as 
himself,   went   back    to   England,   or   to   more   promising 
scenes.     Winthrop' s  plaint  in  his  Journal  2  over  this  de 
fection  is  pointed  in  rebuke  of  them,  but  of  noble  manli 
ness*-  %s  to  his  own  constancy.     "  Ask  thy  conscience  if 
thou  wouldst  have  plucked  up  thy  stakes  and  brought  thy 
family  three  thousand  miles  if  thou  hadst  expected  that 
all,  or  most,  would  have  forsaken  thee  there." 

Bearing  in  mind  the  expressions  of  tender  attachment/ 
to  the  Church  of  England  with  which  the  leaders  of  the 
Company  had  parted  from  their  native  land,  we  wait  with 
interest  for  information  on  the  proceedings  and  measures 
first  adopted  on  this  foreign  shore  in  church  institution, 
communion,  and  worship.  That  information  is  full  as  to  re 
sults,  which,  however,  were  of  so  marked  and  unlocked  for 
a  character  as  to  lead  us  to  believe  that  they  were  preceded 
by  some  deliberation  and  discussion,  —  possibly  some  vari 
ance  of  opinion.  But  of  this  we  know  nothing.  So  far 
as  appears  from  the  record,  the  proceedings  and  conclu- 

1  The  whole  sermon  is  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  3d  Series,  vol.  vii. 
pp.  33-48. 

2  Vol.  ii.  p.  87. 


58  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

.: 

sions  were  all  spontaneous  and  harmonious.  While  they 
naturally  cause  more  or  less  surprise  to  all  who  have 
traced  with  care  the  history  developed  to  this  point,  they 
have  excited  much  severity  of  criticism  and  censure,  as 
not  only  done  without  any  recognition  of  "  the  ways  "  of 
the  Church  of  England,  but  so  as  effectually  to  initiate  a 
breach  and  rupture  with  it. 

Gathered  under  a  tree,  or  within  the  fresh  rude  timbers 
of  the  "  Great  House "  built  in  Charlestown  for  the  mis 
cellaneous  uses  of  defence,  storage,  and  meetings,  the 
leaders  of  the  Company  had  "  set  apart  the  30th  of  July, 
1630,  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer."  After  religious 
exercises,  Governor  Winthrop,  Deputy-Governor  Dudley, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  and  Mr.  John  Wilson,  "  with  many 
others,  both  men  and  women,"  put  their  names  to  the 
following  Covenant :  — 

"  In  the  Name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  Obedience  to 
His  holy  will  and  Divine  Ordinance,  — 

"  Wee  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  being  by  His  most 
wise  and  good  Providence  brought  together  into  this  part  of 
America  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts,  and  desirous  to  unite  our 
selves  into  one  Congregation,  or  Church,  under  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  our  Head,  in  such  sort  as  becometh  all  those  whom  He  hath 
Redeemed  and  Sanctifyed  to  Himselfe,  do  hereby  solemnly  and 
religiously  (as  in  His  most  holy  Proesence)  Promisse  and  bind  our 
selves  to  walke  in  all  our  wayes  according  to  the  Rule  of  the  Gos- 
pell,  and  in  all  sincere  Conformity  to  His  holy  Ordinannces,  and  in 
mutuall  love  and  respect  each  to  other,  so  neere  as  God  shall  give 
us  grace." 

The  completion  of  their  church  proceedings,  which  was 
not  made  till  the  27th  of  August,  is  thus  related  by 
Winthrop  : 1  — 

"  We  of  the  congregation  kept  a  fast,  and  chose  Mr.  Wilson  our 
teacher,  and  Mr.  Nowell  an  elder,  and  Mr.  Gager  and  Mr.  Aspinwall, 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  31. 


GOVERNOR    AND    COMPANY   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.         59 

deacons.  We  used  imposition  of  hands,  but  with  this  protestation 
by  all,  that  it  was  only  a  sign  of  election  and  confirmation,  not  of 
any  intent  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  renounce  his  ministry  he  re 
ceived  in  England." 

The  points  to  be  specially  noted  in  these  proceedings  are 
that  "  conformity  "  is  pledged  to  Christ,  not  to  the  Church 
of  England,  and  that  the  words  "  elder  "  and  "  deacon  " 
are  used  in  a  sense  unknown  to  that  Church.  These 
points  will  call  for  further  notice.  Substantially  the  same 
method  of  church  organization  had  been  previously  recog 
nized  in  Plymouth  and  in  Salem  ;  but  it  is  the  more  sig 
nificant  here,  as  having  the  authority  and  sanction  of  the 
responsible  leaders  of  the  Bay  Company.  Whether  so  in 
tended  or  not,  it  proved  to  be  the  initiation  of  a  mode  of  \ 
church  institution  alienated  from  and  not  in  accord  with  ) 
the  Church  of  England  ;  as  such  it  became  the  model  to/ 
be  copied  in  the  thousands  of  Congregational  churches 
which  cover  the  land.  This  alienation  of  the  Boston  church 
from  the  Church  of  England  had  been  significantly  antici 
pated  a  year  previous  in  the  setting  up  of  the  church  in 
Salem.  When  this  was  gathered,  under  the  Congregational 
form,  two  brothers,  John  and  Samuel  Browne,  —  men  much 
honored  by  their  associates  as  members  of  the  Council, — 
taking  offence  at  the  disuse  of  the  Common  Prayer  and 
the  ceremonies,  at  once  put  them  to  service  in  a  small  con 
gregation  made  up  of  those  who  were  in  sympathy  with 
them.  Endicott  for  this  offence  summoned  the  Brownes 
before  the  Council.  The  brothers  pronounced  the  minis 
ters  Separatists,  and  likely  to  become  Anabaptists.  En 
dicott  told  them  that  New  England  was  not  a  fit  place 
for  them,  and  they  were  summarily  sent  back  to  England. 
This  measure  of  high-handed  authority  seemed  to  settle 
the  point  that  the  colony  was  to  be  one  of  Nonconformists. 
Mr.  Doyle l  says :  — 

1  The  English  in  America,  i.  129. 


60  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"If  the  colony  was  to  become  what  its  promoters  intended, 
unity,  not  merely  of  religious  belief,  but  of  ritual  and  of  ecclesias 
tical  discipline,  was,  at  least  for  the  present,  a  needful  condition  of 
existence.  We  must  not  condemn  the  banishment  of  the  Brownes 
unless  we  are  prepared  to  say  that  it  would  have  been  better 
for  the  world  if  the  Puritan  colony  of  Massachusetts  had  never 

existed." 

• 

We  shall  see  further  on  that  the  Boston  church  would 
not,  when  challenged  to  do  so,  renounce  its  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England,  nor  express  its  penitence  for 
having  been  in  its  fold.  But  by  its  own  act  it  was  cut  off 
from  recognition  by  that  mother  church.  Its  ways  from 
its  beginning  were  in  accordance  with  the  Nonconformity 
professed  by  its  members ;  its  usages  were  at  once  and 
continuously  distinctive.  The  liturgy,  the  read  prayers,  the 
responsive  services,  days  of  observance  other  than  the 
Sabbath,  the  official  relation  of  the  minister,  were  all  dis 
pensed  with.  This  pattern  for  a  New  England  church  was 
of  course  regarded  as  exactly  set  by  Scripture,  and  vari 
ances  from  it  were  unscriptural.  Strangely  enough,  it  was 
to  come  about  in  from  fifty  to  sixty  years, —  when  habit  and 
usage  and  the  coming  upon  the  stage  of  a  new  generation 
had  made  this  New  England  pattern  traditional,  and  civil 
law  had  conferred  on  it  the  privilege  and  dignity  of  an  Es 
tablishment,  —  that  when  the  old  mother  church  presented 
•y  itself  here  for  recognition  it  was  regarded  not  only  as  a 
Vsjtranger,  but  as  a  trespasser  and  intruder,  unwelcome  and 
odious.  Yet  the  fathers  had  expressed  to  it  their  yearning 
love  and  gratitude  ;  Winthrop  and  his  associates  had  never 
renounced  its  communion  in  England,  though  there  is  evi 
dence  that  they  had  sought  religious  sympathy  and  nour 
ishment  in  independent  services  of  conference  and  prayer. 
Still,  as  already  noticed,  the  spontaneity  and  harmony  with 
which  they  entered  into  their  innovating  ways,  —  without, 
as  we  can  discover,  any  variance  or  opposition, —  would 
seem  to  indicate  some  previous  mutual  understanding  of 


GOVERNOR  AND  COMPANY  OP  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.    61 

plan  and  purpose  before  leaving  England.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  under  the  circumstances  of  the  exile  the 
Congregational  institution  and  discipline  was  a  matter  of 
exigency  and  necessity.  But  this  does  not  appear  ;  for  the 
first  ten  pastors  here  had  been  Episcopally  ordained.  The 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  might  have  been  obtained  as 
easily  as  the  Bible.  They  might  have  chosen  vestrymen,' 
wardens,  and  a  clerk ;  they  might  have  set  up  an  altar 
and  a  rail ;  they  might  have  followed  the  Scripture  les 
sons  orderly.  There  was  nothing  here  in  soil,  climate,  or 
physical  condition  to  hinder  but  that  Englishmen  might 
have  brought  hither  their  sacred  forms  and  usages,  had 
they  wished  to  do  so.  Had  they  wished  to  do  so  :  but 
they  evidently  did  not.  Unless,  therefore,  one  is  pre 
pared  to  say  that  the  professions  of  attachment  and  grati 
tude  with  which  they  parted  from  the  Church  in  their 
native  land,  when  followed  by  the  course  at  once  adopted 
here,  indicate  artifice,  insincerity,  and  hypocrisy,  he  must 
seek  for  a  reconciling  explanation. 

Winthrop  makes  a  significant  entry  in  his  Journal a  with 
in  three  years  after  his  arrival  here.  Referring  to  a  hear 
ing  before  the  Council  in  England  of  some  friends  of  the 
Colony  in  answer  to  some  complaints  by  its  enemies,  he 
writes  that  "  the  defendants  were  dismissed  with  a  favor 
able  order  for  their  encouragement,  being  assured  from 
some  of  the  Council  that  his  Majesty  did  not  intend  to 
impose  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England  upon  us ; 
for  that  it  was  considered  that  it  was  the  freedom  from 
such  things  that  made  people  come  over  to  us." 

Here  it  may  be  that  we  find  relief  in  the  perplexity  before 
us.  Nonconformists  might  be  fond  of  their  lineage  through 
the  Church  of  England  and  express  their  attachment  to  it, 
because  they  distinguished  broadly  between  what  was  vital 
to  its  being,  the  divine  essentials  of  its  life  and  power,  and 
certain  unessential,  indifferent,  and  even  injurious  elements 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  103. 


62  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

in  its  discipline,  organization,  and  administration.  The 
^criptures  and  the  Faith  were  the  essentials.  The  Puritans 
revered  the  Scriptures,  and  held  the  doctrinal  belief  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  more  rigidly  than  did  many  of  those 
who  did  not  share  their  scruples.  It  is  for  such  as  so  be 
lieve  to  maintain  that  the  glory  of  the  Church  of  England 
consists  in  the  ceremonial  and  forms  which  distinguish  it 
from  other  churches  rather  than  in  its  inheritance  and 
enjoyment  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  Puritans  did  not  so  believe.  This  will  ap 
pear  as  we  now  proceed  to  set  forth  the  principles  of 
their  nonconformity.  Higginson,  in  the  words  of  his  al 
ready  quoted,  has  clearly  intimated  the  difference,  well 
understood  at  the  time,  between  "  Separatists  "  and  "  Non 
conformists." 


III. 


THE  NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH 
OF  ENGLAND. 

As  the  two  terms  "  Nonconformists  "  and  "  Separatists  " 
were  found  necessary  to  express  the  different  relations  of 
parties  toward  the  English  Church  after  its  rupture  with 
Rome,  the  difference  between  their  meaning  and  use  must 
be  clearly  drawn.  The  term  "Separatist"  carried  its  own\ 
explanation  with  it.  It  described  those  who  put  themselves 
wholly  outside  of  the  ecclesiastical  fold,  renouncing  inem-V 
bership,  and  assuming  toward  it  an  attitude  of  repugnance, 
with  more  or  less  of  active  hostility  to  it.  Of  these  were 
the  congregations  which  left  England  for  Holland  and  other 
parts  of  the  Continent,  and  one  of  which  came  to  Plymouth. 
The  Nonconformists  did  not  wish  or  intend  to  sever  them 
selves  from  the  English  Church,  nor  to  remain  in  it  as 
internal  enemies,  but  rather  as  its  warm  and  faithful  mem 
bers.  An  attempt  will  soon  be  made  to  define  their  views 
and  wishes.  Here  it  may  be  said  in  general,  that,  in  ad 
hering  to  the  Church  and  shrinking  from  renouncing  their 
heritage  in  it,  they  put  themselves  in  an  attitude  of  distin 
guishing  between  certain  of  its  elements  and  others,  some 
of  which  they  approved,  others  of  which  troubled  their  con 
sciences.  This  attitude  of  theirs  was  somewhat  similar  to 
that  of  a  man  who  allows  himself  to  be  ranked  in  a  great  , 
political  party,  yet  -disapproves  of  and  will  not  comply  with  , 
some  of  its  measures  or  tactics  ;  or,  as  one  may  mingle  i» 
the  social  life  around  him,  and  yet  object  —  even  to  eccen 


64  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

tricity  —  to  some  of  its  standards  or  customs.  The  point 
before  us  is  to  explain  —  if  any  one  thinks  an  explanation 
worth  the  while  —  how  Winthrop  and  his  Company,  after 
leaving  England  with  such  warm  professions  of  attachment 
to  the  mother  church,  should  immediately  on  reaching  their 
new  home  institute  "  a  particular  church  "  of  their  own,  so 
unlike  it  and  so  independent  of  it  as  effectually  to  sever 
themselves  and  their  posterity  from  its  communion.  And 
further,  we  must  keep  in  view  the  fact  that  under  the 
novel  church  institution  in  which  they  had  placed  them 
selves,  they  stoutly  refused,  when  challenged  to  do  so,  to 
renounce  their  mother  church  and  express  penitence  for 
having  communed  with  it. 

I  will  try  to  put  to  service  the  fruits  of  some  consider 
able  study  which  I  have  given  to  this  period  and  subject  of 
history,  with  the  purpose  of  stating  as  impartially  as  I 
may  the  case  of  the  Puritans,  simply,  however,  as  an  ex 
positor,  not  as  its  champion.  The  positions  to  be  taken 
and  the  arguments  to  be  set  forth  are  theirs,  —  the  measure 
of  my  own  approval  of  or  sympathy  with  them  is  a  wholly 
irrelevant  matter  here. 

If  at  this  present  time  there  were  no  "  dissenters  "  in 
England,  and  if  the  Established  Church,  thoroughly  organ 
ized  and  settled  in  its  government  and  administration, 
were  peacefully  and  harmoniously  pursuing  its  work,  there 
should  start  forth  within  its  fold  a  considerable  body  of 
men  to  impugn  or  assail  it,  raising  division  and  discord, 
we  might  well  look  to  them  to  give  us  reasons  and  grounds 
of  great  weight  and  of  manifest  urgency  to  justify  them  in 
their  course.  They  might  be  able,  under  the  circumstances 
supposed,  to  vindicate  themselves  in  the  judgment  of  fair- 
minded  persons  by  offering  sufficient,  or  if  but  seeming, 
warrant  for  their  course  ;  for  all  human  organizations  and 
institutions  are  open  to  inquisition,  review,  and  readjust 
ment.  But  if  these  critics 'and  dissentients  should  show 
themselves  as  moved  simply  by  a  restless  and  factious  spirit 


En 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    65 

to  breed  discord  where  there  was  peace,  and  could  offer 
for  their  justification  only  perverse  and  inflammatory  com 
plaints,  imaginary  grievances,  angry  objections  to  things 
"  indifferent,"  trivial  scruples  and  crotchets  engendered  in 
their  own  conceits,  they  might  expect  to  draw  upon  them 
selves  not  only  the  censure  and  disapprobation  of  good 
men,  but  even  some  forms  of  a  severer  retribution. 

Now,  there  are  in  print  countless  volumes  and  pamphlets, 
dating  soon  after  the  Reformation  in  England  and  coming 
down  to  our  own  time,  which  represent  the  Nonconformists 
and  the  Puritans  in  general  as  not  only  pursuing  the  course 
described  in  the  former  of  these  suppositions,  but  as  adding 
to  it  all  that  is  perverse  and  odious  in  the  latter.  The  fact 
that  the  Puritan  party  not  only  failed  to  secure  a  triumph 
for  its  own  principles,  but  also  suffered  humiliation  in  its 
defeat,  is  used  as  reflecting  back  upon  it  a  just  judgment 
for  its  factiousness  and  unreasonable  antagonism. 

The  description  given  of  the  English  Nonconformists  in 
many  pages  that  stand  for  history,  is  as  follows  :  That  they 
started  forth  under  a  well-settled  order  of  constitution  and 
discipline  in  the  Church  of  England,  which  had  the  general 
assent  and  approval  of  the  mass  of  the  people  of  the  realm, 
and  factiously  fomented  variance  and  discord  with  a  con 
tentious  arid  malignant  spirit,  working  themselves  into  a 
morbid  activity  of  conscience  which,  while  rendering  them 
disagreeable  to  others,  proved  them  to  be  without  reason, 
judgment,  and  true  Christian  sentiment. 

How  wide  of  the  truth,  how  grievously  erroneous,  and 
how  false  to  all  the  verities  of  the  case  this  representation 
of  the  principles  and  course  of  the  Puritans  is,  will  appear 
from  a  simple  statement  of  the  well  attested  facts  of  his 
tory.  This  view  of  the  Puritans  as  introducing  strife  and 
discord  in  a  well-settled  order  in  the  Church,  and  of  urging 
factious  and  perverse  methods,  whims,  and  scruples  in  things 
indifferent  under  the  plea  of  advancing  a  pure  reformation, 
proceeds  upon  two  assumptions.  First,  that  when  the  Puri- 

5 


DO  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

tans  present  themselves  actively  and  earnestly  within  the 
fold  of  the  English  Church,  its  constitution  and  organization 
were  well  settled,  its  order  and  discipline  were  satisfactory 
to  the  people  of  the  realm,  and  its  sacred  offices  were  in 
peaceful  administration.  The  second  assumption  is,  that 
after  the  rupture  with  Rome  called  the  Reformation,  a 
standard  had  been  recognized  as  fixed  in  reason  and  the 
nature  of  things  for  deciding  at  once  the  compass,  range, 
and  details  of  the  changes  to  be  made  in  the  organization, 
discipline,  ritual,  and  worship  of  the  renewed  Church, — 
as  to  what  in  the  Roman  heritage  was  to  be  retained  and 
honored,  and  what  was  to  be  repudiated  and  disused.  How 
utterly  opposed  these  bold  assumptions  are  to  historic 
truth,  will  reveal  itself  to  any  one  who  reads  any  ten  out 
of  the  thousands  of  the  volumes  upon  the  subject  which 
have  claims  to  our  trusty  perusal. 

What  date  in  the  period  of  the  opening  and  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  English  Reformation  will  any  one  ven 
ture  to  fix  upon  as  marking  the  condition  of  settled  order, 
and,  but  for  the  factious  spirit  of  the  Puritans,  of  quietude 
in  the  English  Church  ?  Let  him  run  through  the  whole 
period  covered  by  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and  of  his 
three  children,  —  Edward,  Mary,  and  Elizabeth, —  and  of 
the  four  Stuart  kings.  Through  that  whole  space  of  time 
the  Church  was,  to  use  the  mildest  term  for  description, 
unsettled,  in  process  of  reconstruction  and  of  internal  and 
external  organization  and  pacification. 

The  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  found  the  Pope  of  Rome  the 
head  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  more  of  power  and 
rule  in  the  realm  than  had  its  sovereign.  His  spiritual 
authority  had  become  so  mixed  and  so  transcendent  in 
secular  affairs  as  to  be  undistinguishable  from  a  temporal 
sway.  He  was  the  head  of  a  hierarchy,  which  in  its  gra 
dations  and  orders  gathered  all  classes,  ranks,  and  estates 
of  the  people,  from  the  monarch  and  nobility  down  to  the 
peasant,  into  subordination  to  it.  Every  ecclesiastic  in  the 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    67 

realm  — cardinal,  prelate,  abbot,  rector,  monk,  and  friar  — 
received  commission  from  and  owed  allegiance  to  him.  The 
Pope  through  his  ministers  constituting  the  Church,  apart 
from  its  lay  membership,  was  the  largest  landholder  in  the 
kingdom,  holding  by  the  dead  hand,  in  mortmain,  enormous 
endowments  for  religion,  education,  and  charity.  The  Pope 
could  put  the  kingdom  under  interdict,  and  absolve  all  the 
King's  subjects  from  their  allegiance.  The  quarrel  of  the 
King  with  the  Pope,  on  personal  grounds,  led  the  monarch 
to  deny  and  renounce  the  Pope  as  the  head  of  the  English 
Church,  and  to  claim  that  prerogative  for  himself.  This 
was  the  whole  of  the  work  of  Reformation  effected  by 
the  King ;  in  all  else  he  lived  and  died  a  good  Roman 
Catholic. 

But  what  of  the  Church  of  England  in  this  crisis,  with 
only  a  change  from  an  ecclesiastical  to  a  lay  headship  ? 
The  Church  bearing  the  name  of  Christ  had  grown,  been 
developed,  or  evolved  from  the  simplicity  of  its  primitive 
institution  to  a  towering  and  grasping  dominancy  over  its 
willing  and  unwilling  discipleship.  If  one  should  say  to 
us  that  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  in  Rome  "  was  built  by 
God,"  we  should  understand  him  as  so  affirming  because 
God  furnished  the  materials  and  endowed  the  human  skill 
that  reared  the  structure.  And  this  would  not  make  us 
oblivious  of  the  fact  that  unconsecrated  stones  from 
heathen  edifices  had  been  built  into  the  walls,  that  fables 
and  falsehoods  entered  into  its  symbolism,  and  that  arti 
fice,  greed,  extortion,  rapacity,  and  fraud  in  the  traffic  of 
"  Indulgences  "  had  furnished  the  funds  for  an  enormous 
outlay.  In  much  the  same  way,  one  who  is  not  in  the 
communion  of  the  Papal  Church  regards  its  claims  to  a 
divine  origin  and  authority.  He  knows  from  what  original 
and  germ  it  started,  and  the  method  of  its  growth,  accre 
tion,  and  claim  to  supreme  authority  in  spiritual  things, 
and,  so  far  as  it  pleases,  to  extend  the  compass  of  the  spirit 
ual,  in  temporal  things.  It  requires  no  great  profundity 


68  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

of  scholarship  in  ancient  lore  for  an  inquirer  to  trace  the 
processes  of  corruption,  fraud,  ingenuity,  the  artful  use  of 
opportunities,  forged  documents,  towering  ambitions,  and 
an  adroit  playing  upon  human  credulities  and  weaknesses 
by  which  the  Papal  Church  gathered  to  it,  and  then  assimi 
lated,  the  elements  and  methods  of  its  thrall  over  men. 
The  power  and  skill  of  organization,  through  multiplied 
and  graded  representatives  of  its  unity,  explain  to  us  the 
secret  of  its  marvellous  and  stupendous  sway.  It  has 
wrought'  into  its  ecclesiastical  fabric  the  noblest  and  the 
meanest  materials ;  its  discipleship  has  included  saints 
and  devils,  and  it  has  been  served  by  both  of  them. 
Lordly  prelates,  puffed  with  ambition,  intrigue,  and  sen 
suality,  have  been  its  statesmen ;  men  of  the  loftiest  zeal 
and  the  humblest  spirit  in  its  service  have  been  its  mission 
aries  ;  and  women  of  meek  and  all  self-sacrificing  graces 
and  virtues  have  been  the  ministers  of  its  holy  charities. 
As  we  study  that  Church  in  the  contrasted  aspects  which 
it  presents  in  history  and  in  life,  we  are  moved  to  affirm 
that  there  is  nothing  too  good  to  be  said  of  it,  and  nothing 
too  bad  to  be  said  of  it.  But  when  the  papal  head  of  the 
Church  of  England  had  been  repudiated  and  displaced,  the 
Church  itself  was  left  under  the  organization  and  adminis- 
tratidh,  discipline  and  ceremonial,  to  which  many  centuries 
of  authority  and  obedience  had  trained  the  people  of  the 
realm.  The  problem  now  presented  was,  what  was  to  be 
done  with  a  papal  church  deprived  of  its  papal  head  ? 
Henry  VIII.  opened  that  problem,  and  left  it  to  be  dis 
posed  of  by  his  royal  successors  through  the  reigns  already 
mentioned.  During  a  large  part  of  that  period  the  ques 
tion  whether  the  Reformation  itself  should  abide,  should 
advance  or  recede,  depended  upon  the  education  which 
the  successive  sovereigns  had  received,  and  whether  they 
would  uphold  the  old  church  or  the  new.  Roman  Catho 
lics  and  Protestants  took  turns  at  roasting  at  the  stake, 
and  at  being  committed  to  the  Tower,  the  prisons,  and  the 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    69 

headsman's  axe.  Will  any  one  fix  for  us  the  date  when 
the  present  established  Church  of  England  came  into  ex 
istence,  and  had  finally  settled  its  constitution  and  order  ? 
The  Books  of  Homilies  adopted  by  that  Church  in  the 
reigns  of  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth,  were  ordered  to  be 
read  in  every  church  in  the  kingdom.  The  "  Homily 
against  the  Peril  of  Idolatry  "  pronounces  this  judgment 
upon  the  Roman  Church,  under  which  the  kingdom  had 
previously  been  in  obedience :  "  Laity  and  clergy,  learned 
and  unlearned,  all  ages,  sects,  and  degrees  of  men,  women, 
and  children  -of  the  whole  of  Christendom,  had  been  at 
once  drowned  in  abominable  idolatry,  and  that  for  the 
space  of  eight  hundred  years  and  more."  Here  certainly 
was  a  good  start  and  reason  for  reform.  But  so  vacil 
lating  and  inconstant  was  the  work  as  it  went  on  for  a 
century  that  the  statement  often  repeated  by  Roman 
Catholic  writers  is  substantially  true,  —  that  the  English 
Parliament,  or  Convocation,  has  alternately  approved  and 
repudiated  such  Roman  doctrines  and  usages  as  Transub- 
stantiation,  Invocation  of  the  Saints,  Extreme  Unction, 
Prayers  for  the  Dead,  and  Auricular  Confession.  In  1559 
the  Mass  was  pronounced  to  be  "  a  blessed  privilege,"  and 
in  1632  it  was  condemned  as  "  a  blasphemous  fable."  In 
1534  Parliament  denied  that  the  Pope  had  rightful  -juris 
diction  in  England  ;  but  two  years  afterward  the  Convo 
cation  at  York  affirmed  that  "the  King's  Highness,  nor 
any  temporal  man,  may  not  be  the  head  of  the  Church  by 
the  laws  of  God,"  and  that  "  the  Pope  of  Rome  hath  been 
taken  for  the  head  of  the  Church  and  Vicar  of  Christ,  and 
so  ought  to  be  taken." l  Eighteen  years  afterward  this 
judgment  was  condemned,  and  the  King  was  substituted 
for  the  Pope  as  the  head  of  the  Church.  In  1559  the  ball 
was  thrown  to  and  fro.  Both  houses  of  Convocation  as 
serted  the  Pope's  supremacy ;  Parliament  denied  it,  and 
gave  the  Queen  the  headship.  The  royal  head  of  the 

1  Strype's  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  vol.  i.  part  ii.  pp.  266,  267. 


70  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Church  promulgated  successively  the  two  following  oppo 
site  doctrines  ;  namely,  in  1537,  this  :  — 

"  As  touching  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  we  will  that  all  bish 
ops  and  preachers  shall  instruct  and  teach  our  people  committed 
by  us  unto  their  spiritual  charge,  that  they  ought,  and  must,  con 
stantly  believe  that  under  the  form  and  figure  of  bread  and  wine, 
which  we  there  presently  do  see  arid  perceive  by  our  outward 
senses,  is  verily,  substantially,  and  really  contained  and  compre 
hended  the  very  self-same  body  and  blood  of  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  which  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  suffered  upon  the 
cross  for  our  redemption  ;  and  that  under  the  same  form  and  figure 
of  bread  and  wine  the  very  self-same  body  and  blood  of  Christ  is 
corporally,  really,  and  in  the  very  substance  exhibited,  distributed, 
and  received  of  all  them  which  receive  the  same  sacrament." 

And  this  in  the  Articles  of  1552 :  - 

"  Transubstantiation  (or  the  change  of  the  substance  of  bread 
and  wine),  in  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  cannot  be  proved  from 
Holy  Writ ;  but  it  is  repugnant  to  the  plain  words  of  Scrip 
ture,  and  hath  given  occasion  to  many  superstitions.  .  .  .  Arid 
since  (as  the  Holy  Scriptures  testify)  Christ  hath  been  taken  up 
into  heaven,  and  there  is  to  abide  till  the  end  of  the  world,  it 
becometh  not  any  of  the  faithful  to  believe  or  profess  that  there 
is  a  real  or  corporal  presence  (as  they  phrase  it)  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  in  the  holy  eucharist.  The  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  not,  by  Christ's  ordinance,  reserved,  carried 
about,  lifted  up,  or  worshipped." 

Bishop  Burnet,  an  historian  of  the  Reformation,  tells  us 
of  a  kindly  attempt  to  allow  a  free  choice  between  these 
two  beliefs  :  — 

"  In  1559  it  was  proposed  to  have  the  communion-book  so  con 
trived  that  it  might  not  exclude  the  belief  of  the  corporal  pres 
ence  ;  for  the  chief  design  of  the  Queen's  Council  was  to  unite 
the  nation  in  one  faith,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  nation  con 
tinued  to  believe  such  a  presence."  l 

1  History  of  the  Reformation,  p.  573. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND.    71 

On  one  point  only  was  Elizabeth  decided  and  positively 
fixed ;  that  was  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Refor 
mation,  the  denial  of  any  rightful  exercise  of  the  papal 
power  within  her  realm.  She  was  tolerant  of  some  of  the 
principles  and  practices  of  the  Papacy  which  had  so  long 
held  sway  in  some  of  the  details  of  government,  and  which 
were  not  readily  to  be  discredited  for  the  mass  of  her  sub 
jects.  Her  policy  was  shrewd  and  artful.  There  were 
Catholic  sovereigns  and  princes  whom  she  had  either  to 
conciliate  or  to  render  impotent  in  any  measures  they  might 
attempt  for  strengthening  the  papal  power  against  her. 
The  diplomacy  of  her  reign,  as  it  has  been  revealed  to  us 
in  State  Papers,  is  a  most  marvellous  disclosure  of  crooked 
intrigues  and  wily  ingenuities,  with  tricks  of  falsehood 
which  baffle  all  attempts  at  classification. 

When  the  first  act  was  done  in  the  work  of  reform  in 
the  English  Church,  even  the  wisest  in  the  realm  could 
have  had  but  the  faintest  apprehension  of  the  scope  and 
substance  of  the  revolution  that  was  to  be  wrought.  Un 
der  Romanism  an  elaborate  and  highly  artificial  ceremo 
nial  had  engaged  the  senses  and  sentiments  of  the  people, 
leaving  thought  and  intellect  at  rest.  The  Lord's  Supper, 
from  what  we  read  of  it  in  the  New  Testament,  where  the 
gathered  disciples  remembered  their  Master  "  in  the  break 
ing  of  bread,"  had  become — as  one  may  regard  it,  either  an 
august  or  a  deceiving  ceremonial  —  an  altar-service  by  the 
priest,  with  symbols,  incense,  robings,  gestures,  genuflec 
tions,  and  adorations,  the  wafer  serving  as  an  amulet  or  a 
charm.  Baptism,  with  its  consecrated  water  and  its  chrism, 
was  an  exorcising  spell.  The  mendicant  orders  —  filthy 
and  covered  with  vermin  —  infested  the  highways  and  by 
ways,  the  village  purlieus,  market-places,  and  hostelries. 
The  land  was  skinned  and  plundered  for  Peter's  pence. 
Fees  and  exactions  were  extorted  for  every  incident  and 
experience  of  life ;  the  humblest  hut  or  cottage  could  not 
be  occupied  till  by  ghostly  exorcism  the  Devil  had  been 


72  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

warned  out  of  it.  Birth,  baptism,  the  churching  of  moth 
ers,  confirmation,  confession,  communion  were  assessed  by 
a  scale  of  fees.  Even  death  did  not  secure  a  release  from 
these  priestly  extortions ;  for  not  even  the  saintliest  soul, 
as  it  parted  with  the  body,  went  direct  to  heaven,  but  was 
delayed  in  the  limbo  of  Purgatory,  needing  altar  masses 
for  its  release.  And  as  in  the  transition  from  time  to 
eternity  dates  and  periods  are  immeasurable,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  know  when  a  soul  had  been  prayed  out  of 
the  half-way  house,  it  was  but  a  measure  of  prudence  to 
provide  for  "  perpetual  masses." 

From  the  complete  and  ubiquitous  oversight  and  sway  of 
this  system  in  belief,  usage,  and  authority,  it  was  the  ulti 
mate  end  of  the  Reformation  to  secure  deliverance  for  all 
who  would  avail  of  it.  In  place  of  it  was  to  come  an  in 
tense  activity  of  such  intellectual  force  as  each  individual 
might  possess,  a  craving  for  instruction,  an  illumination 
and  direction  of  conscience  by  divine  guidance,  a  rejection 
of  sacerdotal  mediation,  and  a  reliance  upon  reason.  It 
was  a  process  of  slow  and  lengthened  stages.  Where  was 
this  exercise  of  independent  thought  and  reason  to  be 
trammelled  or  arrested  ?  The  full,  complete  claim  of  ec 
clesiastical  authority  being  repudiated,  how  could  a  portion 
or  fragment  of  it  be  reclaimed  ?  How  could  Protestantism 
in  its  development  recognize  a  natural  or  artificial  bound 
for  its  free  activity  ?  Those  who  would  have  us  believe  that 
the  work  and  standard  for  the  Reformation  were  settled  at 
the  start  are  blind  to  what  they  will  not  see. 

These  are  but  fragmentary  tokens  —  they  might  be  in 
definitely  multiplied  —  of  the  distractions  of  that  formative 
period  of  the  English  Church  alternating  between  the  old 
and  the  new  order,  into  whose  alleged  composure  and  tran 
quillity  the  Puritans  are  charged  with  introducing  strife  and 
discord.  And  who  were  these  Puritans  ?  They  constituted 
fully  one-half  of  the  most  sincere,  scholarly,  learned,  high- 
minded,  and  every  way  noble  men  among  the  reformers  of 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND.    73 

England.  They  were  heads  and  professors  in  her  universi 
ties,  eminent  divines  in  her  pulpits,  exiles  on  the  Continent 
during  the  vacillations  of  Henry  VIII.  and  the  martyr 
doms  under  Mary.  They  initiated  the  very  first  processes 
of  the  Reformation,  and  were  the  most  constant,  consistent, 
and  resolute  adherents  to  and  advancers  of  it.  More  than 
once  in  the  alternations  and  developments  of  the  protracted 
strife,  the  mastery  in  the  direction  of  affairs  seemed  as  if 
it  would  find  them  in  the  majority.  In  the  developments 
of  the  long  and  bitter  conflict  between  the  Puritans  and 
the  Conformists,  some  heated,  factious,  and  unreasonable 
spirits  did  indeed  aggravate  the  contention  about  the  origi 
nal,  fundamental,  and  wholly  pertinent  principles  which 
were  in  conflict.  But  these  principles  were  worthy  of  and 
gave  dignity  to  the  noble,  earnest  scholars,  divines,  and 
statesmen  who,  as  composing  the  leaders  of  the  Puritans, 
aimed  for  a  thorough  and  consistent  reformation  and  re 
construction  of  the  Church. 

Macaulay l  thus  states  the  views  of  some  prelates,  none 
of  whom  "  belonged  to  the  extreme  section  of  the  Protes 
tant  party  "  :  — 

"  Many  felt  a  strong  repugnance  even  to  things  indifferent,  which 
had  formed  part  of  the  polity  or  ritual  of  the  mystical  Babylon. 
Bishop  Hooper,  who  died  manfully  at  Gloucester  for  his  religion, 
long  refused  to  wear  the  episcopal  vestments.  Bishop  Ridley,  a 
martyr  of  still  greater  renown,  pulled  down  the  ancient  altars  of 
his  diocese,  and  ordered  the  eucharist  to  be  administered  in  the 
middle  of  churches,  at  tables  which  the  Papists  irreverently  termed 
i  oyster-boards.'  Bishop  Jewel  pronounced  the  clerical  garb  to  be 
a  stage  dress,  a  fool's  coat,  a  relic  of  the  Amorites,  and  promised 
that  he  would  spare  no  labor  to  extirpate  such  degrading  absur 
dities.  Archbishop  Grindal  long  hesitated  about  accepting  a  mitre 
from  dislike  of  what  he  regarded  as  the  mummery  of  consecration. 
Bishop  Parkhurst  uttered  a  fervent  prayer  that  the  Church  of 
England  would  propose  to  herself  the  Church  of  Zurich  as  the 

1  History  of  England,  chap.  i. 


74  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

absolute  pattern  of  a  Christian  community.  Bishop  Ponet  was  of 
opinion  that  the  word  '  bishop  '  should  be  abandoned  to  the  Papists, 
and  that  the  chief  officers  of  the  purified  church  should  be  called 
'superintendents.'  Cranmer,  indeed,  plainly  avowed  his  convic 
tion  that  in  the  primitive  times  there  was  no  distinction  between 
bishops  and  priests,  and  that  the  laying  on  of  hands  was  altogether 
unnecessary." 

Roger  Williams l  in  his  quaint  style  presents  the  oscilla 
tions  of  the  Church  of  England  in  its  efforts  to  find  an 
equilibrium :  — 

"  To  seeke  no  further  than  our  native  Soyle,  within  a  few  scores 
of  years  how  many  wonderfull  changes  in  Religion  hath  the  whole 
Kingdome  made,  according  to  the  change  of  the  Governours  thereof 
in  the  severall  Religions  which  they  themselves  imbraced!  Henry 
the  7  finds  and  leaves  the  Kingdome  absolutely  Popish.  Henry  the 
8  casts  it  into  a  mould  half  Popish,  half  e  Protestant.  Edward  the  6 
brings  forth  an  Edition  all  Protestant.  Queen  Mary  within  a  few 
yeares  defaceth  Edward's  worke,  and  renders  the  Kingdome  (after 
her  Grandfather  Hen.  7  his  pattern)  all  Popish.  Maries  short  life 
and  Religion  ends  together ;  and  Elizabeth  reviveth  her  Brother 
Edward's  Modell  —  all  Protestant.  And  some  eminent  Witnesses 
of  God's  Truth  against  Anti-  Christ  have  enclined  to  believe  that 
before  the  downfall  of  that  Beast,  England  must  once  againe  bow 
down  her  faire  Neck  to  his  proud  usurping  yoake  and  foot." 

It  is  idle  to  regard  the  work  and  crisis  of  the  Reforma 
tion  in  the  English  Church  as  if  it  were  assignable  to  a 
date  in  time,  or  to  any  decisive  step  or  measure.  It  was 
a  work  of  degrees,  stages,  and  methods,  running  through 
several  reigns,  —  not  continuous  in  them,  —  and  with  retro 
gressive  as  well  as  with  resisted  and  repressive  incidents. 
Henry  VIII.,  though  regarded  as  taking  the  lead  in  it,  can 
be  called  a  "  religious  reformer  "  only  under  serious  qualifi 
cations  of  the  phrase  as  we  use  it.  He  was  a  political  re 
former,  in  that  he  extinguished  the  thraldom  of  the  Papacy 

1  Bloody  Tenent  (Narragansett  Club  ed.),  pp.  136-137. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    75 

in  its  claim  to  supreme  authority  in  the  realm  in  ecclesi 
astical  affairs  and  in  appointments  to  all  benefices,  and 
that  he  cut  off  the  greedy  revenue  —  at  times  exceeding 
the  royal  revenue  —  which  the  Popes  had  extorted  from  the 
King's  subjects.  He  was  a  social  reformer,  in  that  he  had 
broken  up  many  of  those  vile  dens  called  "  religious  houses." 
But  no  change  was  made  by  him  in  the  doctrine,  ritual,  or 
discipline  of  the  Church  during  his  reign.  Save  that  he 
was  not  a  Papist,  he  was  no  heretic,  but  lived  and  died,  as 
before  stated,  a  good  Roman  Catholic.  The  extinction  of 
the  Papal  dorninancy  in  the  realm  was  indeed  the  primary 
arid  signal  act  of  the  Reformation,  from  which  all  else  fol 
lowed.  Henry  might  at  any  time  have  made  his  peace 
with  the  Pope,  and  been  left  free  for  a  vast  deal  of  purify 
ing  and  revolutionary  and  reconstructing  work,  simply  by 
yielding  his  headship  of  the  English  Church  to  the  Bishop 
of  Rome.  And  many  years  afterward  when  the  work  of 
reform  had  greatly  advanced,  though  the  Pope  had  declared 
Elizabeth  to  be  illegitimate,  and  had  denied  her  hereditary 
right  to  the  crown,  he  offered  to  retract  his  judgment  and 
sentence,  and  to  allow  her  subjects  the  use  of  the  English 
liturgy,  if  she  would  reinstate  him  in  his*old  authority.1 

One  can  but  marvel  at  what  we  may  call  the  versatility 
of  the  English  people,  their  easy  and  amiable  way  of  ac 
commodating  themselves  to  the  rapid  changes,  the  advances 
and  the  arrests  of  the  work  of  reform  during  the  successive 
reigns.  A  few  prominent  in  station,  or  bold  and  unquail- 
ing  in  standing  for  personal  convictions,  paid  the  penalty 
of  the  prison,  the  gibbet,  or  the  stake  ;  but  the  mass  o 
the  people  moved  as  do  the  flowing  and  the  ebbing  tides. 
After  the  six  years  of  the  reforming  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
the  Papacy  resumed  its  sway  under  the  brief  and  bloody 
rule  of  Mary,  and  the  majority  of  Edward's  bishops  and 
clergy  turned  with  the  tide.  But  the  Pope,  during  the  brief 
resumption  of  his  authority,  had  had  the  satisfaction  in  the 

1  Sharon  Turner,  Modern  History  of  England,  vol.  iv.  p.  165. 


76  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

four  years  of  Mary's  reign  of  burning  the  first  reformed 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  three  reformed  bishops,  and 
of  putting  to  death  other  victims,  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  in  number.  When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  the 
number  of  ecclesiastics  in  the  realm,  all  nominally  Roman 
Catholics,  was  nine  thousand  and  four  hundred.  All  of 
these,  except  about  "two  hundred,  freely  and  uncompelled 
transferred  their  allegiance  to  the  Queen,  peacefully  en 
joyed  their  benefices,  and  used  the  new  English  forms  of 
service  and  worship  in  the  very  places  where  they  had  just 
been  celebrating  the  Mass. 

And  now  as  to  that  supposed  standard  to  be  found  in  the 
reason  and  nature  of  things  for  marking  the  extent  and 
thoroughness  of  the  reform  to  be  instituted  in  the  organiza 
tion,  discipline,  and  ritual  of  the  Church.  Was  there  such 
a  standard  ?  Could  such  be  found  ;  and  if  so,  should  it  be 
assumed,  even  though  by  a  majority,  as  in  itself  so  just 
and  reasonable,  so  suited  to  advance  the  ends  of  piety  and 
morality  in  the  realm,  as  to  warrant  its  legal  establishment 
and  enforcement  ? 

Among  the  various  schools  and  parties  included  more 
or  less  tolerantly  in  the  Church  of  England,  has  been  a 
class  of  men  who  have  thought  it  to  be  wise  and  true  to 
minimize  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  dominancy  of  the 
Papacy  in  England  at  the  period  of  the  Reformation.  They 
maintain  that  an  English  Church,  with  an  all  but  com 
plete  autonomy,  existed  in  the  realm,  with  its  own  organi 
zation  and  means  of  independent  administration,  which  had 
been  gradually  encroached  upon,  impaired,  and  tyrannously 
brought  under  the  sway  of  Rome.  Nothing,  therefore,  was 
needed  but  to  renounce  that  foreign  usurpation,  to  deny  the 
headship  of  the  Pope,  to  respond  to  his  interdict  by  despis 
ing  it,  and  to  resume  the  original  ecclesiastical  order  and 
system  which  Rome  had  temporarily  perverted. 

There  is  an  easy  plausibility  in  this  assumption.  But 
how  does  it  stand  in  view  of  the  strife,  the  alternating 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    77 

fortunes,  the  royal  and  parliamentary  measures,  the  contro 
versies  and  persecutions  through  which  the  present  Eng 
lish  Establishment  was  substituted  for  the  old  Church  of 
the  realm  ?  By  no  means  during  the  age  of  the  Reforma 
tion,  either  in  England  or  on  the  Continent,  were  the  whole 
import  and  consequences  of  it  realized.  It  has  taken  the 
succession  of  many  generations,  developments  of  expe 
riment,  thought,  and  opinion,  and  dynastic  and  political 
convulsions  and  revolutions,  to  draw  out  the  full  results  of 
the  substitution  of  individualism  in  the  whole  field  of  re 
ligion  for  mediaevalism  and  the  sway  of  a  priesthood.  And 
Puritanism  in  its  various  stages  and  methods  has  been 
the  continuous  force  and  agency  for  working  that  stupen 
dous  process.  The  effort  lias  been  to  open  for  free  inves 
tigation,  to  discredit  and  make  impotent,  every  dogma, 
assumption,  and  institution  which  has  wrongfully  and  ty- 
rannously  brought  men  under  intellectual,  spiritual,  and 
ecclesiastical  bondage,  and  to  verify  and  give  free  course 
to  substantial  and  wholesome  truths  that  can  win  the  con 
victions  of  intelligent  minds,  and  conserve  all  the  tran 
scendent  interests  of  social,  civil,  political,  domestic,  and 
private  life. 

Even  the  Puritans  saw  but  a  tract  of  the  long  way  be 
fore  them  in  which  their  principles  would  find  a  develop 
ment  ;  but  they  recognized  clearly  that  part  of  it  on  which 
they  were  to  advance,  and  they  were  resolute  in  following 
it.  They  did  not  take  that  complacent  view  of  the  Church 
into  which  they  were  born,  —  that  all  that  it  needed  of  re 
form  was  to  substitute  their  own  lay  king  for  a  papal  eccle 
siastic  as  its  head.  The  Church  of  Christ  which  was  so 
dear  to  them,  and  which  claimed  their  whole  love  and  ser 
vice,  had  an  invisible  head  in  Him,  and  no  vicegerent  could 
represent  Him  on  the  earth.  It  gives  definiteness  and  force 
to  the  general  and  comprehensive  position  on  which  the 
Puritans  planted  themselves,  to  assert  of  them  that  their 
nonconformity  consisted  in  this,  —  that  everything  of  doc- 


'  78  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

trine,  hierarchy,  institution,  and  discipline  in  the  Church 
of  England  to  which  they  objected  and  which  they  re 
nounced,  had  come  into  it  as  corruption  and  imposition 
from  the  dominancy  of  the  Papacy.  All  their  fellow-sub 
jects  of  the  realm  who  sympathized  with  the  Reformation 
became  in  fact  Nonconformists.  That  this  name  and  *  the 
position  which  it  defined  should  have  come  to  be  restricted 
to  the  Puritans,  simply  indicated  an  arrest  in  the  process 
of  the  Reformation. 

In  the  reconstruction  of  the  reformed  Church  of  England 
as  a  substitute  for  the  Papal  Church,  an  alternative  pre 
sented  itself  to  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics,  and  the  choice 
which  decided  between  the  two  methods  which  were  of 
fered  settled  from  that  time  to  this  the  relations  between 
conformity  and  nonconformity.  Those  statesmen  and  eccle 
siastics,  for  reasons  which  had  a  prevailing  weight  with 
them,  chose  a  method  of  compromise  and  eclecticism.  They 
wished  to  conserve  some  of  the  elements  of  the  hierarchical 
and  ceremonial  system  of  the  Papal  Church,  —  not,  how 
ever,  because  inherited  from  that  Church,  but  upon  other 
grounds  for  approving  them.  In  deference  to  the  prime 
authority  of  the  Scriptures,  they  affirmed  that  nothing  was 
to  be  enjoined  or  imposed  for  belief  or  practice  but  what 
could  be  deduced  from  those  Scriptures,  or  proved  to  be 
not  inconsistent  with  their  teachings.  Thus  a  range  of 
liberty  was  left  in  instituting  the  reformed  Church  for  the 
adoption  of  certain  practices  and  usages  of  the  "primitive" 
Church,  which  as  being  traceable  in  the  age  immediately 
following  upon  that  of  the  Apostles,  might  be  claimed  to 
have  had  their  institution  or  sanction.  Those  who  accepted 
this  side  of  the  alternative  presented  at  the  reconstruction 
of  the  Church,  became  conforming  members  of  it. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  alternative,  the  fundamental, 
unqualified,  unyielded  position  tenaciously  assumed  by  the 
Puritans  in  the  opening  of  their  strife,  and  constantly 
maintained  ever  since  by  those  of  their  religious  lineage, 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    79 

was  the  sole  and  sufficient  use  and  authority  of  the  Scrip 
tures  for  all  that  concerned  the  institution,  organization, 
and  discipline  of  the  Christian  Church,  its  ministry,  its 
doctrinal  teaching,  its  ritual,  and  government.  They  would 
not  be  led  outside  of  the  Bible  for  precedents,  arguments, 
or  usages.  The  rightfulness  or  expediency  of  the  position 
thus  taken  by  the  Puritans  was  by  no  means  obvious,  and 
was  fairly  open  to  weighty  objections  raised  against  it. 
The  Bible,  it  was  urged  in  answer  to  their  position,  came 
to  us  as  a  deposit  and  legacy  from  the  "  Church."  That 
Church  might  have  more  to  give  us  for  faith,  for  edifica 
tion,  and  for  directing  the  Christian  life  in  individuals  and 
in  their  sacred  fellowships.  What,  it  was  asked,  could  be 
more  natural  and  reasonable,  more  to  be  expected,  recog 
nized,  and  welcomed  by  us,  than  that  the  Apostles,  where 
Gospel  and  Epistle  closed,  should  have  left  to  those  who 
were  to  succeed  them  unwritten  directions  and  counsels 
to  be  reverently  transmitted  in  tradition  and  usage,  and 
which,  having  been  carefully  identified  and  verified,  should 
go  down  with  the  Scriptures  as  comment  or  supplement 
to  guide  the  Church  ? 

Most  certain  it  is  that  the  Puritans  would  have  gladly 
welcomed  and  reverently  obeyed  all  such  Apostolical  teach 
ing  and  usage  of  this  character  as  admitted  of  being  dis 
tinctively  certified  to  them.  It  was  indeed  but  reasonable 
to  have  looked  for  it ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  search  for 
original  and  certified  Apostolical  tradition  the  result  was 
disappointing.  Many  of  those  Puritans  were  profoundly 
learned  and  scholarly  men,  far  surpassing  the  scholars  of 
our  age  in  their  skill  and  mastery  of  the  lore  for  the 
study  of  antiquity,  of  primitive  times,  of  the  works  of  the 
Fathers,  and  of  ecclesiastical  history.  For  learning  and  its 
materials  were  then  mostly  confined  to  such  themes,  in 
stead  of  gathering  into  it  the  present  enormous  wealth  of 
literature  and  science.  The  Puritans  searched  earnestly 
and  patiently  through  those  ancient  stores  which  now  pass, 


80  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

even  among  their  descendants,  as  rubbish.  We  have  in 
use  a  symbol  called  the  "  Apostles'  Creed  ; "  but  it  can  be 
traced  back  only  to  the  fourth  century.  What  a  boon 
would  millions  have  esteemed  it  if  there  had  been  certified 
to  us  a  real  Apostles'  Creed,  —  a  summary,  distinct  state 
ment,  in  simple  language,  of  the  cardinal  teachings  for  a 
living,  devout,  and  edifying  belief  !  What  a  resource  and 
substitute  would  this  have  been  for  the  dismal  and  unsat 
isfactory  task  of  searching  through  the  Bible,  fractured  into 
fragments,  for  sentences,  half-sentences,  and  words  to  be 
patched  into  mosaics  for  setting  forth  a  creed !  But  the 
wheat  and  the  chaff  of  patristic  divinity  were  threshed  and 
winnowed  ;  the  results  are  to  be  found  in  folios  which 
would  bridge  the  ocean.  That  "  primitive  "  Church  litera 
ture  was  found  by  the  Puritans  to  be  bitterly  disappointing. 
In  the  mass  it  proved  to  be  an  extended  and  humiliating 
commentary  upon  hints  dropped  by  the  pens  of  the  Apos 
tles  about  those  who  in  their  time  were  corrupting  "  the 
simplicity  of  the  Gospel,"  "  causing  divisions  and  strifes," 
"  seeking  to  have  the  pre-eminence."  The  Puritan  Milton 
had  studied  with  equal  zeal  the  classic  authors  and  the 
antiquities  of  the  Church.  He  pronounced  the  latter  to  be 
the  gatherings  of  "  the  drag-net  of  tradition."  Whatever 
else  is  to  be  said  of  this  primitive  and  patristic  literature, 
this  is  to  be  affirmed, —  that  fertile  as  have  proved  the  con 
tents  of  the  Scriptures  for  word  controversy,  textual  strife, 
and  doctrinal  variance,  the  conflicts,  heresies,  and  conten 
tions  of  Christians  have  found  more  abounding  and  dis 
tracting  material  in  patristic  and  ecclesiastical  theology. 
When  we  consider  how  small  is  the  nucleus  of  positive  and 
certified  truth  as  to  documents,  persons,  and  facts  with 
which  we  have  to  start,  and  then  realize  the  enormous  ac 
cretions  and  developments  accumulated  and  transmitted  as 
justly  or  erroneously  held  to  share  their  value  and  author 
ity,  we  no  longer  wonder  over  the  dismal  and  fearful  mate 
rials  of  Church  historv.  It  would  be  a  relief  if  we  could 


NONCONFORMISTS    AND    THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND.         8l 

assure  ourselves  that  as  the  trunk,  boughs,  branches,  twigs, 
and  leaves  of  the  gigantic  and  spreading  oak  all  partake  of 
the  essence  and  quality  of  the  tiny  acorn,  so  all  that  now 
stands  to  represent  the  outgrowth  of  the  original  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  bears  with  it  the  virtue  and  power  of  the 
germ.  Many  men  of  the  clearest  intellect  and  most  sin 
cere  in  purpose,  with  the  learning  of  sages  and  the  skill 
and  acumen  of  judicial  minds,  have  set  to  themselves  the 
fond  task,  probing  the  question  to  its  depths,  to  reach  to 
and  verify  the  root-facts  about  the  personal  life,  history, 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  Some  of  these  seekers  have 
given  forth  the  results  of  their  search  for  the  help  of 
others.  The  effort  resembles  somewhat  the  retrospective 
musings  of  an  aged  person  in  an  attempt  to  cast  aside 
the  impressions  and  experiences  gathered  from  long  years, 
that  he  may  revive  the  freshness  of  his  early  childhood. 

But  the  way  was  clear  for  the  Puritans,  under  their  ex 
alted  estimate  of  and  way  of  using  the  Bible,  —  which  will 
be  further  defined  in  following  pages,  —  to  plant  them 
selves  upon  the  Scriptures  as  the  sole  authority  for  them 
in  matters  of  faith  and  Church  institution  and  discipline. 
When  they  were  told  that  their  attempt  to  confine  them 
selves  strictly  to  a  simple  Scriptural  model  was  unreason 
able  and  impracticable,  they  were  content  to  reply  that  it 
ought  not  to  be  so,  and  that  on  the  face  of  the  statement 
they  detected  false  lures  and  risks  of  error.  There  were 
questions  enough,  they  said,  opened  within  the  Scriptures 
which  all  professed  to  believe  ;  but  that  outside  of  the 
Holy  Book  they  were  all  adrift.  Puritanism,  then,  as  rep 
resented  by  the  Nonconformists,  —  loving  and  clinging  to 
their  mother  church,  which  had  come  under  usurped  and 
corrupting  foreign  thraldom,  —  stood  for  a  return  to  the 
simplicity  of  the  first  discipleship  and  fellowship  among 
Christians  as  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament.  If  the 
Puritan  scholars  and  champions  were  drawn  into  contro 
versy  outside  those  pages,  they  were  ready,  with  a  secon- 

6 


82  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

dary  earnestness,  as  if  defending  only  outworks,  to  follow 
their  adversaries  into  what  they  regarded  as  the  bogs  and 
swamps  of  the  post-Apostolic  centuries.  But  their  zeal 
and  their  primary  efforts  were  spent  in  maintaining  that 
the  Scriptures  were  the  sole  and  sufficient  authority  for 
them,  and  in  searching  through  them  for  the  light  and 
guidance  which  they  needed.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
and  effective  methods  by  which  Puritanism  wrought  its 
earliest  and  most  radical  work,  was  one  which  came  into 
practical  and  earnest  use  at  the  Reformation,  and  one 
which  has  ever  since  —  coming  down  through  the  heritage 
of  Puritanism  —  been  a  most  popular  and  edifying  usage 
among  the  non-prelatical  and  independent  fellowships  of 
Christians.  The  Roman  Church  knew  nothing  of  lay- 
conferences,  or  of  the  intermeddling  of  the  laity  in  any 
way  with  religious  debatings.  Still  less  had  there  been 
under  the  old  priestly  rule  even  a  trace  of  what  immedi 
ately  after  the  rupture  of  unity  became  so  familiar  as 
"  Bible  reading,"  —  the  solace,  joy,  and  soul  sustenance  of 
the  Puritans.  The  Church  had  taught  its  confiding  chil 
dren  that  it  was  not  for  them  to  concern  themselves  with 
questions  of  faith,  or 'discussions  of  religious  mysteries; 
she  alone  had  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  authority  in  these 
matters.  They  were  simply  to  accept  her  teachings  ;  she 
was  charged  with  the  sacred  deposit,  and  would  dispense 
its  treasures  to  all  her  docile  children. 

Puritanism  found  its  early  nurture  and  vigor  in  private 
assemblies  for  conferences,  prayer,  and  Scripture  exposi 
tion  ;  and  in  these  earnest  meetings,  led  by  men  among 
the  ablest  of  their  time  in  learning  and  loftiness  of  pur 
pose,  they  sought  to  revive  the  primitive  simplicity  of  the 
Apostolic  ministry.  They  traced  through  the  inspired  rec 
ords,  into  most  minute  particulars  and  with  a  microscopic 
study  of  texts,  the  usages  of  the  first  generation  of  disci 
ples,  and  drew  from  them  a  model  of  what  the  Church 
ought  to  be  for  all  time.  It  was  thus  that  they  were  made 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    83 

to  realize  what  a  stupendous,  towering,  and  oppressive  sys 
tem  of  priestly  and  ecclesiastical  enthralment  had  substi 
tuted  itself,  through  the  Papacy,  for  the  original  fellowship 
of  Christian  disciples.  Their  amazement  first,  and  then 
their  indignation,  was  excited  by  the  contrast.  It  was  but 
the  natural  working  of  the  elements  of  human  nature  that 
their  revolt  from  Rome  should  pass  into  hatred  of  all  that 
it  had  devised  of  superstition,  priestcraft,  imposition,  and 
tyranny  in  doctrine,  rite,  and  discipline,  in  trifles  as  well 
as  in  the  most  august  observances.  The  hatred  grew  to 
bitterness,  finding  its  expression  in  the  well-worn  phrases, 
"the  rags  of  Popery,"  "the  mark  of  the  Beast,"  "Anti 
christ,"  and  "  the  Scarlet  Woman." 

From  the  leading  rule  of  the  Puritans  —  that  they  would 
follow  in  all  things  the  model  and  precedent  of  Scripture  — 
were  deduced  all  their  other  principles.  There  they  found 
the  "  pattern "  for  the  composition  and  institution  of  a 
fellowship  or  church  among  disciples  of  Christ.  The  min 
ister  or  teacher  was  in  no  sense  a  priest.  The  line  of 
teachers  would  follow  from  the  Apostles,  certified  by  the 
transmission  —  not  through  the  touch  of  human  hands,  but 
through  oracles  of  truth  —  of  what  they  themselves  had 
taught.  One  of  these  Apostles  had  thus  instructed  a  be 
loved  disciple  of  his  own :  "  The  things  that  thou  hast 
heard  of  me  among  many  witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou 
to  faithful  men  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also."  l 
"  Faithful  men,"  "  able  to  teach,"  —  there,  for  the  Puritan, 
lay  the  qualification  and  the  function  of  the  Christian  min 
ister.  From  that  simple  model  the  Puritan  asserted  an 
other  of  his  root-principles,  —  the  parity  and  equality  of 
Christian  ministers.  There  was  no  occasion  or  warrant  for 
orders  or  ranks  among  them.  They  were  all  "  brethren ;  " 
they  were  to  have  no  "  master."  With  what  amazement, 
then,  would  the  Puritan  turn  to  study  the  process  by 
which  a  domineering  and  haughty  hierarchy,  with  all  its 

1  2  Timothy,  ii.  2. 


84  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

4 

gradations  of  dignity,  its  prerogatives,  its  robings,  its 
mitres,  its  crosiers,  and  its  pride  of  power,  had  substituted 
itself  for  the  early  fellowship  of  "  the  ministers  of  the 
Word "  !  There  was  no  court  in  Christendom,  no  feudal 
distribution  of  ranks  of  nobility  down  to  serfdom,  which 
from  the  loftiest  to  the  lowliest,  in  the  allotment  of  pre 
rogatives  and  privileges,  could  compare  itself  with  the 
priesthood  of  the  Roman  Church.  With  Pope  and  cardi 
nals  at  the  head,  closing  with  a  retinue  of  friars,  it  rep 
resented  a  power  in  the  temporal  affairs  of  men  which 
well-nigh  made  them  forget  the  stages  of  its  growth  and 
aggrandizement.  The  circumstances  of  their  own  time 
and  experience  caused  the  Puritans  in  England  to  suffer 
from  the  arrogance  and  oppressions  of  those  whom  they 
called  the  "  Lord  Bishops,"  —  temporal  and  spiritual  peers, 
with  baronial  rights  and  ecclesiastical  courts  arid  processes. 
So  here  again  the  Puritans  turned  back  to  Scripture,  and 
found  there  no  warrant  for  these  clerical  dignitaries  suc 
ceeding  to  such  as  in  the  Roman  Church  had  been  high 
ministers  of  State,  planning  and  executing  military  cam 
paigns.  They  could  not  believe  that  the  Christian  minis 
try,  consistently  with  the  original  simplicity  of  its  purpose 
and  service,  could  offer  a  field  of  graded  honors  and  digni 
ties  parallel  to  that' in  social  ranks  and  relations  in  the 
civil  state.  The  prizes  were  to  be  won,  also,  by  ambition, 
corruption,  patronage,  and  intrigue ;  and  when  so  won 
would  be  worn  arrogantly  and  offensively. 

The  Preface  to  the  Ordinal  of  the  English  Book  of  Com 
mon  Prayer  opens  with  this  sentence  :  "  It  is  evident  unto 
all  men  diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  au 
thors,  that  from  the  Apostles'  time  there  have  been  these 
Orders  of  ministers  in  Christ's  Church,  —  bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons."  In  dealing  with  this  sentence  the  Puritans, 
for  reasons  already  stated,  would  leave  unnoticed  the  ref 
erence  to  "  ancient  authors,"  whom  they  ruled  out  of  the 
case,  and  they  would  substitute  in  for  from  "  the  Apostles' 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    85 

time."  Of  the  sentence  thus  qualified,  leaving  it  to  ex 
press  what  alone  had  pertinency  for  them,  they  would 
offer  a  sturdy  and  positive  denial,  which  would  be  ap 
proved  by  all  who  represent  them  on  this  point  at  the 
present  day,  who  would  urge  that  in  the  sentence  the  as 
sertion  of  its  being  "  evident  to  all  men "  would  have 
required  large  exceptions,  amounting  even  to  a  majority 
on  the  other  side.  The  Puritans,  recognizing  the  special 
dignity  and  functions  of  the  Apostles,  in  which  they  could 
have  no  successors,  could  find  but  a  single  Order  of  min 
isters  in  the  New  Testament.  They  found  the  terms 
"  bishop,"  or  "  overseer,"  and  "  presbyter,"  or  "  elder,"  to 
be  used  interchangeably  and  synonymously,  as  designating 
the  same  persons.  As  for  deacons  being  an  "  Order  of  the 
ministry,"  they  turned  to  the  record  for  the  plain  evidence 
that  so  far  from  being  an  Order  of  the  ministry,  having 
advancement  in  office  in  view,  they  were  chosen  for  the 
express  purpose  of  filling  a  different  service,  —  namely,  to 
relieve  others  discharging  "the  ministry  of  the  Word" 
from  a  burdensome  task  which  did  not  belong  to  them. 
They  sought  for  the  first  selection  of  deacons  in  the  first 
planting  of  the  Christian  Church.  This  they  found  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  chap.  vi.  verses  1-6,  together  with  a 
charming  disclosure  of  the  jealousies  of  human  nature, 
even  in  the  freshness  of  the  first  Christian  generation. 
The  early  fellowship  embraced  alike  Jewish  and  Gentile 
converts.  A  murmur  arose  among  the  latter  that  the 
Apostles,  in  allotting  distributions  from  a  common  fund 
for  the  relief  of  those  who  needed  aid,  showed  a  partiality 
for  the  widows  of  their  own  Jewish  race.  Seeming  to  re 
sent  the  charge,  "the  Twelve  called  the  multitude  of  the 
disciples  unto  them," — afterward  known  as  "the  laity," 
without  any  function  in  such  matters,  —  and  spoke  to 
them  as  follows  :  "  It  is  not  reason  that  we  should  leave 
the  Word  of  God  and  serve  tables.  Wherefore,  brethren, 
look  ye  out  among  you  seven  men  of  honest  report,  full  of 


86  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

the  Holy  Ghost  and  wisdom,  whom  we  may  appoint  over 
this  business.  But  we  will  give  ourselves  continually  to 
prayer  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  Word.  And  the  saying' 
pleased  the  whole  multitude;  and  they  chose"  —seven  men 
named  —  "whom  they  set  before  the  Apostles:  and  when 
they  had  prayed,  they  laid  their  hands  on  them."  The  Pu 
ritans,  with  acuteness  and  force  of  argument,  drew  many 
inferences  from  this  plain  statement,  which  proved  embar 
rassing  to  their  opponents.  Here  was  distinctly  recognized 
the  right  and  privilege  of  those  afterward  called  "  the 
laity  "  to  make  the  primary  selection  of  officers  in  their 
churches,  —  a  right  of  which  they  were  wholly  deprived  in 
the  Church  of  Rome  and  in  the  Church  of  England,  and 
which,  having  been  sturdily  stood  for  by  the  Puritans  and 
other  Dissenters,  was  recovered  by  the  lay  members  of  the 
Episcopal  denomination  when  organized  in  the  United 
States.  Again,  it  appeared  from  the  text  that  the  first 
seven  "  deacons,"  :  so  far  from  being  chosen  as  an  initia 
tory  "order"  preparatory  to  an  advancement  to  higher 
grades  in  the  ministry,  were  elected  for  a  service  quite 
distinct  from  the  ministry,  and  in  order  to  release  those 
charged  with  the  ministry  from  a  vexatious  task  which 
did  not  belong  to  them,  —  namely,  that  of  distributing 
charity  gifts  and  having  care  for  widows.  After  they  had 
been  chosen  by  the  people,  the  Apostles  transferred  the 
funds  to  them.  The  Puritans  also  argued  that  the  "  lay  nig 

1  It  is  true  that  the  title  "  deacons  "  is  not  attached  to  the  seven  persons 
thus  chosen.  But  the  functions  and  offices  here  assigned  them  identify  them 
with  the  Officers  afterward  so  named.  Jerome  calls  deacons  "attendants  on 
tables  and  widows."  There  is  not  a  single  case  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa 
ment  of  promotion  from  one  Order  in  the  ministry  to  a  higher  one.  There  is 
a  single  sentence  from  the  pen  of  Saint  Paul  (1  Tim.  iii.  13)  :  "For  they 
that  have  used  the  office  of  a  deacon  well,  purchase  to  themselves  a  good 
degree"  —  which  has  been  used  as  intimating  stages  and  ranks  in  a  line  of 
promotion  in  the  ministry.  The  word  /3a0/i6s  has,  indeed,  for  one  of  its 
meanings,  a  step,  or  a  stair.  But  it  also  means  a  standing.  The  Revised 
Version  renders  the  text,  —  "they  that  have  served  well  as  deacons  gain  to 
themselves  a  good  standing." 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    87 

on  of  hands  "  by  the  Apostles  was  simply  a  formal  desig 
nation  of  the  candidates,  and  did  not  imply  a  "  gift  to  them 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  inasmuch  as  a  primary  condition  of 
their  nomination  and  selection  as  "  deacons,"  or  servants, 
was  that  they  should  be  known  already  to  the  community 
as  men  "  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The  qualifications  re 
quired,  and  the  service  to  be  performed  seem  on  the  face 
of  them  rather  suggestive  of  that  class  of  grave  and  elderly 
men  known  in  Congregational  churches  as  "  deacons," 
overseers  of  charities,  and  helpers  of  ministers  in  temporal 
matters,  having  no  view  to  advancement  in  the  ministry, 
than  of  the  young  and  inexperienced  candidates  for  the 
ministry  in  the  Episcopal  communion.  It  is  true  that 
some  of  these  first  deacons  afterward  exhorted  in  meet 
ings  of  the  disciples  ;  but  Congregational  deacons  have 
always  been  free  to  do  this,  according  to  occasion  and 
ability.  The  first  of  these  deacons  soon  became  the  first 
martyr,  —  Stephen.  But  was  either  one  of  the  seven  by 
subsequent  "  ordination "  advanced  in  the  ministry  as  a 
presbyter  or  bishop  ?  The  writer  may  incidentally  state 
here,  that,  so  far  as  his  memory  serves  him,  he  cannot 
recall  a  case  in  the  early  or  more  recent  history  of  New 
England  in  which  a  deacon  of  a  Congregational  Church 
became  an  ordained  minister.  Of  course,  there  may  have 
been  such  cases,  but  as  an  almost  universal  rule  there 
was  a  well  understood  recognition  of  distinctive  sets  of 
gifts  and  qualities  had  in  view  in  the  selection  of  pastors 
and  deacons.  It  was  no  bar  to  the  appointment  of  one  of 
the  latter  officers  that  he  had  not  been  well  educated,  that 
he  was  lame  in  speech  and  lacking  in  personal  graces, 
and  so  disqualified  for  the  ministry.  There  were  also 
"  deaconesses  "  in  the  early  Church.  These,  however,  did 
not  make  an  "order"  in  the  ministry,  though  they  were 
beloved  and  honored  in  the  fellowship.  It  has  proved  no 
easy  task  for  prelatists  to  invalidate  the  Scriptural  argu 
ment  of  the  Puritans  on  this  point. 


88  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

Then  if,  as  the  Puritans  insisted  on  grounds  of  Scripture, 
bishops  and  presbyters  were  only  two  names  for  designat 
ing  indifferently  one  and  the  same  class  of  ministers,  —  all 
in  a  parity,  there  being  several  of  them,  whom  we  should 
now  call  pastors  of  churches  in  one  city,  as  in  Ephesus, — 
the    Puritans    asked   how   it   came    about   that   the   word 
"  bishop "  had   been   accepted  as  the   title   of   a  superior 
among   his  brethren,  with    special  and    exalted   functions 
over  them,  and  the  clerical  or  spiritual  head  of  all  "  the 
inferior  clergy  "  of  a  diocese  or  province  ?     They  read  in 
the  "  Acts  "  that  the  Apostles  made  renewed  visits  to  the 
disciples  in  the  cities  where  they  were  gathered,  "  confirm 
ing  the  churches." l     This  conveyed  to  Puritan  readers  the 
idea  that  these  visits  were  designed  for  further  and  fuller 
teaching  of  imperfectly  trained  companies  of  early  disciples. 
But  the  word  "  confirmation,"  without  the  slightest  war 
rant   for  such  a  use  of  it,  was    selected   and  emphasized 
in  that  text  as  the  basis  of  the  rule  that  only  the  bishop  of 
a  province  or  diocese,  no  matter  how  many  able  and  faith 
ful  ministers  were  serving  churches  in  it,  had  authority  to 
admit  a  candidate  to  the  Lord's  Supper.     The  Puritans  be 
ing  referred  to  "ancient  authors"  on  these  points, declined, 
for  reasons  given,  to  recognize  those  warring  and  conflict 
ing  writers,  and  insisted  upon  a  reference  to  the  "  Word," 
which  was  silent  upon  these  pretensions.     But  as  to  the 
"  Lord  Bishops "  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  Puritans 
put  themselves  in  a  very  decided  position  of  disapproval 
and  antagonism.     At  the  time  of  the  Reformation  every 
one  of  the  English  bishops  was  under  an  oath  of  obedience 
to  the  Pope,  and  held  office  under  that  obligation.     When 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  was  prostrated   and  repudiated, 
the  lay  monarch  became  the  "head  of  the  Church."     The 
Puritans  came  to  regard  the  process  by  which  bishops  ob 
tained  tenure  of  their  exalted  offices  as  a  mere  farce.     The 

1  Acts  xiv.  22  ;  xv.  41. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    89 

monarch  appointed  them,  leaving  to  the  Chapters  a  pre 
tended  right  of  choice,  which  amounted  merely  to  the  ab 
surd  privilege  of  ratifying  the  choice  already  made.  These 
bishops  became  literally  "  lords  over  God's  heritage,"  of 
the  highest  order  of  nobility,  introducing  into  the  Church 
all  the  passionate  rivalries  and  jealousies  of  worldly  ambi 
tion.  From  the  towering  pride  and  rule  of  these  function 
aries  the  Puritans  turned  back  again  to  their  stronghold  of 
Scripture,  and  planted  themselves  on  the  Gospel  rule  of  the 
parity  of  ministers,  whether  serving  in  a  palace  or  in  a 
hovel,  whether  having  the  ear  of  a  monarch  or  laboring  in 
the  humblest  hamlet.  Tf  some  Christian  ministers  affected 
the  state  of  nobles,  others  must  accept  the  lot  of  vassals. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  express  in  the  same  number  of 
words  an  idea  more  discordant  with  the  spirit  and  letter  of 
the  primitive  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  than  goes  with  the 
phrase  "  the  inferior  clergy,"  used  to  designate  all  ordained 
clergymen  below  the  rank  of  prelates.  It  has  even  come 
into  use  in  the  Episcopal  fellowship  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean.  Evidently  its  only  significance  must  attach  to  it  as 
designating  a  lower  degree  of  rank,  dignity,  and  office,  — 
all  inapplicable  in  the  Christian  ministry.  For,  as  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  the  inner  history  of  the  English  Church  has 
abundantly  proved  that  among  u  the  inferior  clergy  "  have 
ever  been  found  its  most  devoted,  laborious,  consistent,  and 
faithful  ministers.  To  this  claim  of  lordly  rank  and  pre- 
eminency  for  the  bishops  was  added  the  exclusive  power  of 
ordination  for  the  ministry, to  continue  in  the  Church  "the 
Apostolical  succession."  !  The  reformed  churches  on  the 
Continent  did  not  commit  themselves  to  this  theory  as 
necessary  for  the  continuance  of  "  a  valid  ministry."  For 
the  English  Puritans  it  was  enough  to  assure  themselves, 

1  The  translators  of  our  English  version  of  the  New  Testament  contrived 
not  only  to  assign  a  "bishopric"  to  Judas,  but  also  to  quote  the  Psalmist  as 
prophesying  of  him  in  that  dignity  (Acts  i.  20).  The  revised  version  substi 
tutes  the  word  "office." 


90  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

through  their  mastery  of  the  historical  learning  bearing 
on  the  subject,  that  it  would  have  been  —  as  Archbishop 
Whately  in  our  own  time  forcibly  and  candidly  urged  —  ut 
terly  impossible  for  any  bishop  or  prelate  to  have  traced 
his  official  lineage  back  to  the  Apostles.  What  with  the 
lay  bishops  and  the  "  boy  bishops  "  of  medievalism,  there 
would  have  been  many  missing  links  and  also  many  rotten 
links  in  the  chain.  But  the  Puritan  protest  struck  deeper 
than  that ;  it  refused  to  confound  the  vitalities  of  the 
Christian  religion  with  a  form  or  ceremonial  restricting 
the  gift  of  Apostolic  grace  to  the  hands  of  a  prelate.  The 
cogency  of  the  Puritan  argument  on  this  point  has  been 
candidly  yielded  in  these  calmer  times  of  controversy  and 
discussion.  For  though  among  the  divines  and  champions 
of  the  English  Church  there  are  those  who  insist  that  "  a 
valid  ministry  "  of  the  Christian  religion  can  be  secured 
only  through  prelatical  ordination,  the  assumption  is  modi 
fied  and  diminished  in  more  moderate  assertions  of  it,  till 
Episcopal  ordination  is  content  to  present  itself  as  simply 
a  police  method  for  the  orderly  introduction  of  proper  can 
didates  into  the  ministry. 

The  Presbyterians  equally  claim  an  Apostolical  succes 
sion  in  their  ministry,  —  a  presbyterial  episcopate,  descend 
ing  through  the  line  of  presbyter-bishops.  Indeed,  a  series 
of  recent  historians,  divines,  and  lecturers  on  foundations 
in  the  Church  of  England  might  be  cited  here,  as  yielding 
the  strength  of  the  position  taken  by  the  Puritans  on  these 
formerly  sharply-contested  questions  of  prelacy  and  the 
Apostolical  succession.  The  change  in  the  spirit  as  regards 
impartiality  and  candor  in  which  Church  writers  now  deal 
with  themes  once  so  unfairly  and  passionately  treated  by 
them,  is  so  marked  and  so  commendable  that  it  will  not  be 
a  digression  to  illustrate  it  here.  The  reformers  of  the 
conservative  party  in  the  Church  of  England,  standing  be 
tween  the  Romanists  and  the  Puritans,  had  to  deal  with 
both  horns  of  a  dilemma.  In  disputing  with  the  Puri- 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND    THE   CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND.         91 

tans,  who  planted  themselves  strictly  and  exclusively  upon 
the  Christian  Scriptures  and  the  Apostolic  age,  their  op 
ponents  had  to  justify  themselves  for  trespassing  outside  of 
those  Scriptures  and  into  the  post-Apostolic  period,  and  in 
sisting  that  for  an  undefined  and  undefinable  period  called 
<;  primitive,"  and  in  certain  accredited  patristic  writings, 
they  could  find  materials  for  creed  and  polity  which  had 
substantially  the  authority  of  the  commissioned  founders 
of  the  Christian  Church.  But  in  dealing  with  the  cham 
pions  of  the  old  unreformed  Church,  they  were  rightfully 
challenged  for  a  merely  arbitrary  selection  of  a  line  and 
standard  in  accepting  or  rejecting  matters  which  were 
claimed  to  be  of  primitive  tradition  and  usage.  The  lead 
ing  spirits  of  the  work  of  reformation  under  Edward  VI. 
were  guided  by  a  sincere  purpose  of  conforming  the  Church, 
its  formularies  and  services,  as  closely  as  possible  to  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  Scriptures.  But  this  purpose  was 
not  followed  in  subsequent  revisions  of  the  formularies  and 
in  adaptations  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  James  I.  was  fond  of  all  Romanism  except  the 
Pope.  How  all  attempts  at  inclusion  and  comprehension 
of  the  Christian  people  of  the  realm  under  one  fold  with 
a  common  worship  and  discipline  have  failed  since,  even 
when  propitious  opportunities  have  been  offered  for  them, 
need  not  here  be  reviewed.  A  fresh  opportunity,  with  help 
ful  provocatives  to  the  improvement  of  it,  seems  now  to  be 
offering  itself.  The  existing  English  Church  is  the  con 
struction  or  residuum — whichever  we  may  choose  to  call 
it  —  of  a  compromise  betweeen  Puritanism  and  the  old 
Romanism.  Whether  that  result  of  compromise  was,  or 
was  not,  the  only  way  of  disposing  of  the  issues  of  the 
times  and  circumstances  under  which  it  was  reached,  need 
not  be  here  discussed.  But  that  church  of  compromise 
finds  matters  to-day  very  much  in  the  same  condition  as 
they  were  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  and  the  question  now 
is  whether  compromise  shall  be  extended  under  new  terms 


92  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

and  adjustments,  or  yield  to  more  radical  measures.  The 
threatened  disestablishment  of  the  Church  of  England, 
with  the  intent  to  deprive  it  of  the  exclusive  privileges  and 
monopolies  which  it  has  enjoyed  for  three  centuries,  re 
vives  —  indeed,  they  have  never  been  in  abeyance  —  the 
same  pleadings,  arguments,  and  principles  which  were  so 
resolutely  maintained  by  the  Puritans  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  English 
Church  is  but  one  sect  among  many  sects  of  the  realm.  The 
arguments  so  ingeniously,  not  to  say  artfully,  plied  to  dis 
guise  the  fact  are  in  part  perversions  of  history,  and  in 
part  deductions  from  the  actual  privileges  of  favoritism 
which  the  Church  enjoys.  Civil  enactments  have  made 
over  to  her  exclusively  the  vested  ecclesiastical  property  of 
the  realm,  —  cathedrals,  parish-churches,  and  benevolences, 
representation  in  the  upper  house  of  Parliament,  patronage 
at  the  Court,  in  the  Army  and  the  Navy,  —  while  half  the 
subjects  of  the  realm  stand  outside  the  fold.  The  case 
stands  thus :  The  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  with 
no  advantage  or  superiority  whatever  over  the  Noncon 
formists,  or  Dissenters,  in  learning,  character,  abilities,  or 
any  of  the  best  qualifications  for  the  Christian  ministry,  or 
of  fidelity  and  success  in  its  work,  have  as  of  worldly  ad 
vantage  just  what  is  secured  to  them  by  privilege  and 
patronage,  by  Parliamentary  law.  The  unsettled  legacy 
of  the  controversy  with  Dissent  still  prevents  unity  or 
comprehension  in  the  Church,  while  "Romanizing"  ten 
dencies  preserve  the  full  vitality  of  the  uncompromising 
Church  of  the  Papacy. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  gratifying  to  read,  as 
coming  numerously  from  the  press  during  the  last  score  of 
years,  volumes  from  the  pens  of  learned,  able,  and  candid 
divines  and  scholars  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  not 
only  allow,  but  even  urge  and  insist  upon,  the  position  and 
principles  of  the  Puritans  as  to  the  supreme  and  exclusive 
authority  and  sufficiency  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND.         93 

and  of  the  Apostolic  age  for  deciding  all  matters  of  Chris 
tian  belief  and  church  institution  and  discipline.  I  have 
imagined  the  satisfaction  and  delight  with  which  John 
Winthrop  or. John  Cotton  would  have  read  one  such  vol 
ume  which  I  have  now  in  my  hands.1  Nothing  but  the 
official  designation  of  the  author  on  the  titlepage  and  a 
few  incidental  allusions  would  persuade  a  reader  that  the 
book  was  not  written  by  an  original  Puritan.  Winthrop  or 
Cotton  would  have  exclaimed  on  reading  it,  "  Why  could 
not  the  English  churchmen  of  our  time  have  recognized 
the  force  and  validity  of  these  arguments  as  they  came 
from  our  lips  and  pens  ?  "  A  few  passages  from  the  pages 
of  this  learned  and  candid  Puritan  Conformist  in  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  will  show  the  identity  of  his  views  with  those  of 
the  Puritan  Nonconformists  of  the  beginning  of  the  seven 
teenth  century.  Referring  to  the  assumption  that  besides 
the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  usages 
authorized  by  the  Apostles  themselves  in  the  institution 
and  discipline  of  the  Church,  the  following  post-Apostolic 
age  furnishes  for  two  or  more  centuries,  called  "  primi 
tive,"  certain  other  usages  which  may  be  presumed  to  have 
had  the  sanction  of  the  Apostles,  Dr.  Jacob  writes  :  — 

"The  opinion  that  we  are  bound  dutifully  to  submit  to  the 
authority,  and  ought  to  be  guided  by  the  practice  and  example,  of 
the  Church  as  it  was  in  the  first  three,  four,  or  any  other  centuries, 
however  prevalent  and  plausible,  is  delusive  and  ensnaring.  The 
Church  of  the  Apostolic  period  is  the  only  Church  in  which  there 
is  found  an  authority  justly  claiming  the  acknowledgment  of  Chris 
tian  bodies  in  other  times.  And  such  authority  is  found  in  this 
Church,  not  because  it  was  possessed  of  a  truer  catholicity  or  a 
purer  constitution  or  a  more  primitive  antiquity  than  belong  to 

1  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament.  A  Study  for  the  present 
Crisis  in  the  Church  of  England.  By  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Jacob,  D.D.,  late 
Head- Master  of  Christ's  Hospital.  Fifth  American  Edition.  New  York: 
Thomas  Whitaker.  1878. 


94  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

succeeding  ages,  —  for  neither  antiquity,  nor  purity  of  form,  nor 
catholicity  confers  any  right  to  govern  or  command,  —  but  because 
it  was  under  the  immediate  rule  and  guidance  of  the  Apostles ; 
and  it  is  their  infallible  judgment  alone,  as  exhibited  in  this 
Church,  which  has  a  legitimate  claim  to  our  submission.  Of  the 
Church  of  no  other  period  can  the  same  be  said,  because  the 
Apostles  had  no  successors  in  their  office.  They  stand  alone. 
They  stand  alone  as  the  divinely  inspired  teachers,  legislators,  and 
rulers  in  Christ's  Church  and  kingdom.  They  stand  alone  as  men 
appointed  and  commissioned  by  Christ  himself,  and  not  by  man ; 
whereas  all  Christian  ministers  since  their  time,  of  whatsoever 
order  or  degree,  have  been  fallible  men,  and  have  been  appointed 
and  commissioned  by  man,  —  by  the  authority  of  the  particular 
Church  in  which  they  were  to  minister.  The  promise  of  our  Lord 
that  He  would  be  with  the  Apostles  even  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
as  it  did  not  secure  to  them  a  continuance  on  earth  beyond  their 
own  generation,  so  neither  did  it  engage  or  imply  that  others  with 
a  similar  power  and  authority  should  succeed  them.  With  faithful 
preachers  of  Christ,  and  sound  teachers  of  His  word  and  doctrine, 
and  diligent  pastors  of  His  flock,  their  divine  Master  has  in  all 
ages  been  present  by  His  spirit.  But  no  Christian  ministers  hav 
ing  received  the  commission  or  inspiration  of  the  Apostles,  none  of 
them  could  inherit  the  Apostolic  office,  nor  could  they  individually 
or  in  any  collective  body  ever  possess  the  Apostolic  authority. 
And  as  no  Church  ministers,  so  neither  the  Church  itself  of  any 
post-Apostolic  time  —  in  whatever  mode  we  may  suppose  it  to  have 
uttered  a  united  voice  —  has  ever  had  any  Apostolic  or  divine 
authority  to  which  after-ages  owed  submission.  The  opinion  that 
such  submission  is  due  to  the  Church  of  any  given  period  can  be 
justified  only  on  the  supposition  that  the  Church  of  that  period 
was  infallible ;  that,  in  fact,  our  Lord  was  then  so  present  with 
the  visible  Church  as  miraculously  to  exempt  it  from  error  in  the 
exercise  of  its  legislative  and  administrative  functions,  in  doctrine 
and  in  practice.  But  if  so,  is  there  any  ground  whatever  for  re 
jecting  the  claims  of  infallibility  such  as  are  persistently  and  con 
sistently  put  forward  by  the  Church  of  Rome?  Is  there  any 
ground  whatever  for  ascribing  this  sanction  to  the  Nicene  period, 
and  denying  it  to  the  modern  Papacy  ?  For  surely  it  is  impos- 


NONCONFORMISTS    AND    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND.         95 

sible,  with  any  show  of  reason  or  truth,  to  draw  the  line  at  any  one 
place  in  the  history  of  the  Church  after  the  Apostles  had  been 
withdrawn,  and  to  say,  Before  this  the  Church  was  divinely  pre 
served  from  error ;  after  this,  it  was  fallible  and  erred.  There  is 
unquestionable  evidence  that  soon  after  the  Apostles  disappeared 
the  Church  was  no  longer  always  guided  by  the  spirit  of  truth  and 
wisdom,  but  on  the  contrary  gradually  yielded  to  the  seductions 
of  error.  I  appeal,  therefore,  from  the  Nicene  Fathers  to  the 
Apostles  of  Christ,  from  patristic  literature  to  the  New  Testament, 
from  ecclesiastical  authorities  and  practices  of  post-Apostolic  cen 
turies  to  the  primitive  Church  of  the  Apostolic  age.  To  go  back 
to  that  time  and  to  endeavor  as  far  as  possible  to  reproduce  the 
Church  of  the  New  Testament  is  most  needful  for  us  now,  if  we 
would  preserve  a  faithful  and  distinct  acknowledgment  of  Christian 
truth  among  our  people.  .  .  . 

"  Most  interesting,  though  not  without  its  sadness,  it  is  to  trace 
the  characteristic  features  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  its  primitive 
and  Apostolic  state ;  and  then  to  mark  how  its  grand  and  spiritual 
simplicity,  preserved  awhile  after  the  departure  of  the  Apostles, 
began  even  in  the  earliest  centuries  to  be  marred  by  the  doctrines 
and  inventions  of  men,  and  to  be  overlaid  with  imposing  but  super 
stitious  ceremonials.  .  .  . 

"  The  Lord's  Supper,  in  its  original  institution  the  most  simple 
of  all  religious  ordinances,  became  in  the  hands  of  men  a  most 
awful  mystery.  In  its  Apostolic  use  a  pledge  of  soundness  in  the 
faith,  it  was  made  in  the  hands  of  men  an  example  of  gross  super 
stition  and  idolatry.  In  its  divine  intention  a  bond  of  brotherly 
love  and  mutual  kindness,  it  was  changed  in  the  hands  of  men 
into  an  occasion  of  the  most  cruel  persecution.  No  idea  of  a  sacri 
fice  was  attached  to  its  celebration ;  no  change  was  supposed  to 
take  plac'e  in  the  sacred  elements  ;  no  virtue  to  be  imparted  to 
them  or  through  them  by  the  administrator ;  no  presence  of  Christ 
in  them  or  with  them  in  any  especial  or  peculiar  manner.  But 
in  the  post-Apostolic  Church  all  this  was  gradually  changed,  until 
at  last  the  service  was  represented  as  a  sacrifice  offered  upon  an 
altar  by  a  priest,  the  elements  were  spoken  of  and  worshipped  as 
if  they  were  Christ  himself ;  and  other  gross  superstitions  naturally 
ensued.  .  .  . 


96  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"  The  authority  to  which  alone  we  should  appeal  is  that  of  the 
Divine  Head  of  the  whole  Church,  as  it  may  be  gathered  from 
the  words  and  actions  of  His  inspired  Apostles.  The  only  safe 
and  legitimate  course  in  all  our  Church  reforms  is  to  go  to  the 
New  Testament  as  our  guide."  1 

What  a  responsive  assent  would  our  old  Puritan  Non 
conformists  have  given  to  the  following  statement :  — 

"  The  clergy,  not  being  a  priestly  caste,  or  a  mediating,  sacri 
ficing,  absolving  order,  but  Church  officers  appointed  for  the 
maintenance  of  due  religious  solemnity,  the  devout  exercise  of 
Christian  worship,  the  instruction  of  the  people  in  divine  truth, 
and  their  general  edification  in  righteous  living,  are  the  acting 
representatives  of  the  Church  to  which  they  belong,  and  derive 
their  ministerial  authority  from  it.  In  the  words  of  Archbishop 
Whately,  the  clergy  are  merely  the  functionaries  of  the  particular 
Church  of  which  they  are  members ;  it  is  in  that  capacity  only 
that  they  derive  their  station  and  power  from  Christ,  by  virtue  of 
the  sanctions  given  by  Him  to  Christian  communities.  Their  au 
thority,  therefore,  comes  direct  from  the  society  so  constituted,  in 
whose  name  and  behalf  they  act  as  its  representatives,  just  to  that 
extent  to  which  it  has  empowered  and  directed  them  to  act."  2 

As  regards  prescribed  forms  and  liturgical  services  in 
worship  in  the  early  Church,  Dr.  Jacob  writes :  - 

"  All  the  evidence  directly  deducible  from  .the  New  Testament 
is  against  the  use  of  such  formularies  in  the  Apostolic  age.  Nor 
throughout  the  second  century  is  any  reliable  testimony  to  be 
found  indicative  of  any  considerable  alteration  in  this  respect. 
On  the  contrary,  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  described  by  Justin 
Martyr,  seem  to  have  depended  upon  the  ability  and  discretion 
of  the  officiating  minister  as  much  as  they  did  in  the  preceding 
century."  8 

1  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament,  pp.  25-29,  285,  324, 
337,  348. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  123. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  221-222. 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND.         97 

As  I  am  writing  these  pages,  the  religious  journals  of 
the  various  denominations  are  largely  discussing  proposi 
tions  to  advance  the  promotion  of  "  Christian  Unity " 
among  them.  The  subject  had  a  hearing  in  the  last  Con 
vention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  denomination,  which 
set  forth  the  requisite  conditions  for  its  own  engagement 
in  the  object.  Its  response  was  indeed  more  courteous  than 
would  have  been  an  absolute  refusal  to  be  a  party  to  the 
end  proposed ;  but  it  could  not  be  more  effective  than 
would  have  been  such  a  refusal  in  utterly  discouraging 
any  expectation  of  sympathy  or  help  from  that  denomina 
tion  in  the  advancement  of  Christian  Unity.1 

That  response  exacted  a  condition  with  which  not  a 
single  one  of  the  other  Christian  fellowships  —  whether 
much  larger  than  the  Episcopal,  or  smaller  —  will  ever 
comply.  The  condition  was  that  all  these  other  fellow 
ships  should  conform  themselves  to  the  theory  that  "  Epis 
copal  ordination  "  is  indispensable  for  the  valid  ministry 
of  Christ's  Gospel.  To  all  outside  the  Episcopal  commun 
ion  this  assumption  is  either  a  puerile  conceit,  or  a  pom 
pous  assertion  of  some  exclusive  right  or  sacramental 
grace  which  eludes  all  demands  upon  it  for  a  clear,  frank, 
and  intelligible  definition  of  what  the  claim  covers.  The 
assertion  of  the  Roman  Church  that  salvation  is  impossible 
outside  of  its  communion,  defines  a  position  about  which 
there  can  be  no  misunderstanding.  But  though  there  has 
been  such  voluminous  discussion  and  controversy  about 
the  "  Apostolical  succession  "  and  the  exclusive  preroga 
tives  of  "  Episcopal  ordination,"  one  may  look  in  vain  — 
except  it  may  be  in  the  pages  of  some  extravagant  cham 
pion  —  for  a  clear  strong  statement  of  the  loss,  the 

1  One  might  be  tempted  here  to  dilate  upon  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the 
conception  of  "Christian  Unity"  as  really  concerning  heart  sentiments  of 
sympathy,  love,  diffusive  and  comprehensive  Christian  effort,  by  persons  hold 
ing  an  infinite  variety  of  beliefs  and  opinions  ;  which  seems  to  be  had  in 
view  by  those  who  are  proposing  "an  organic  unity,"  —  a  thing  undesirable, 
even  if  possible. 


98  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

harm,  the  peril,  or  penalty  which  is  risked  by  a  Christian 
outside  of  the  Episcopalian  communion.  Is  Gospel  truth 
thus  deprived  of  its  power  over  his  heart  and  life,  or  does 
he  expose  himself  to  a  reduced  share  in  the  blessing  going 
with  it  ?  In  other  words,  what  covenant  privileges,  im 
munities,  and  securities  are  monopolized  by  Episcopalian 
Christians  ?  Till  something  more  than  vague  and  clouded 
oracular  assumptions  and  intimations  are  defined  as  as 
suring  the  exclusive  claims  of  Episcopacy,  they  will  be 
likely  to  be  regarded  as  they  are  now  by  non-Episcopalians, 
as  simple  bugbears.  Protestants  generally  acquiesce  pla 
cidly  in  the  slight  cast  upon  their  ministry  by  the  Roman 
priesthood,  because  it  is  so  sweeping  and  impartial ;  for 
in  the  view  of  that  priesthood  a  Protestant  bishop  or  arch 
bishop  is  of  no  more  account  than  a  field  preacher.  But 
while  most  non-episcopal  Protestants  pass  with  a  smile  of 
indifference  —  if  not  with  a  more  pronounced  look  —  the 
exclusive  claims  of  the  Episcopacy,  some  take  the  matter 
to  heart,  and  are  grieved  and  irritated  by  those  claims.  If 
the  discussion  that  has  been  opened  proceeds,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  define  those  claims  more  sharply.  They 
are  covered  by  the  general  statement,  that  Episcopacy 
"  has  the  only  valid  ministry."  Now,  valid  is  a  word 
of  vague  and  dubious  meaning  in  this  connection.  Those 
who  so  use  it  might  hardly  venture  to  substitute  "  the 
only  efficient  ministry."  Yet  efficiency  is  the  all-essen 
tial  thing  in  the  Christian  ministry.  That  claim  of  sole 
validity,  which  is  not  backed  by  any  superiority  of  char 
acter,  ability,  moral  or  spiritual  excellence,  or  success  in 
the  sacred  work,  in  the  view  of  some  who  are  aggrieved 
by  it,  can  hardly  be  relieved  of  the  charge  of  assumption, 
pretentiousness,  and  official  arrogance. 

But  what  is  more  to  the  point  in  the  matter  before  us  — 
if  the  old  controversy  is  to  be  opened  for  fresh  discussion 
—  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact,  that  while  the  Noncon 
formists  of  the  seventeenth  century  argued  their  cause 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND.    99 

solely  with  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  in  their  hands, 
their  successors  in  this  age  need  only  to  quote  from  the 
writings  of  learned  and  candid  Episcopalians  concessions 
and  affirmations  that  Episcopacy  finds  no  basis  in  the 
Scriptures ;  was  not  known  in  the  age  of  the  Apostles,  or 
established  by  them  ;  is  not  essential  to  the  institution  or 
administration  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  came  into 
some  portions  of  that  Church  in  post-Apostolic  times,  on 
indifferent  reasons  of  convenience  or  assent. 

A  few  more  passages  may  here  be  quoted  from  the  pages 
of  Dr.  Jacob :  — 

"  In  order  to  obtain  a  correct  conception  of  the  Christian  min 
istry  in  its  primitive  state,  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  clearly 
between  what  the  Apostles  themselves  established  in  the  Church, 
and  what  was  afterward  found  to  be  expedient  as  a  further  devel 
opment  of  their  polity.  That  which  may  justly  claim  to  be  a  legit 
imate  and  beneficial  extension  of  Apostolic  order  must  not  on 
that  account  be  confounded  with  ordinances  of  Apostolic  institu 
tion.  I  have,  therefore,  thought  it  necessary  to  omit  all  notice  of 
Episcopacy  in  considering  the  offices  of  presbyters  and  deacons. 
These  were  established  in  the  churches  by  the  Apostles  them 
selves,  while  the  Episcopate,  in  the  modern  acceptation  of  the 
term,  and  as  a  distinct  clerical  order,  does  not  appear  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  was  gradually  introduced  and  extended  throughout 
the  Church  at  a  later  period."  1 

The  author  shows  how  the  Episcopal  office  came  in  as 
a  presidency  or  superintendency,  like  that  of  a  chairman, 
when  several  presbyters,  all  on  an  equality,  were  in  one 
city  or  neighborhood.  Sometimes  there  was  a  rotation  in 
the  office. 

"  The  churches  which  like  our  own  have  retained  the  Episco 
pate  and  Episcopal  ordination,  may  reasonably  prefer  this  form  of 
government,  and  justly  consider  that  it  is  one  of  all  but  Apostolic 
antiquity,  and  one  which  having  been  found  desirable,  or  even 

1  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  67. 


100  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

necessary,  after  the  departure  of  the  Apostles,  and  having  been 
well-tried  by  long  experience,  should  never  lightly  be  given  up. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  government  and  the  ordinations  of 
Presbyterian  churches  are  just  as  valid,  Scriptural,  and  Apostolic 
as  our  own."  l 

"  The  authority  of  the  Christian  minister  in  any  place  is  given 
to  him  by  the  Church  in  which  and  for  which  he  acts  ;  and  this 
authority  is  Apostolic,  if  his  teaching  is  sound  in  Apostolic  truth  ; 
this  authority  is  from  Christ,  if  His  Church  is  a  legitimate  Christian 
community  formed  in  obedience  to  Christ's  command."  2 

Certainly  the  best  way  to  identify  a  river  must  be  by  the 
water  which  flows  continuously  through  it  from  its  source. 

"  The  doctrine  of  the  Apostolical  succession  is  not  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church  of  England,  as  the  following  proofs  distinctly  testify  : 

"  A  doctrine  so  important  and  fundamental,  if  it  is  believed  to 
be  true,  could  not  have  been  omitted  as  it  is  from  our  Articles  and 
Prayer  Book,  if  it  had  been  held  by  our  Church ;  whereas  it  is 
not  only  omitted,  but  the  wording  of  Art.  23  is  quite  incompat 
ible  with  it. 

"The  Statute  of  Elizabeth,  1570,  —  '  An  Act  for  the  Ministry 
of  the  Church  to  be  of  sound  Religion,'  —  only  requires  those  who 
had  received  ordination  in  '  any  other  form  of  Institution,  Con 
secration,  or  Ordering,'  than  that  of  the  Church  of  England,  to 
subscribe  to  the  '  Articles  of  Religion,'  in  order  to  hold  ecclesias 
tical  preferment  in  this  country  ;  no  objection  at  all  being  raised 
to  the  validity  of  such  ordinations."  3 

The  author  gives  other  grounds  for  his  statement,  among 
them  the  allowance  of  Hooker,  "  that  there  might  be  very 
just  and  sufficient  reason  to  allow  ordination  made  without 
a  bishop." 

If  more  evidence  were  needed  in  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  positions  taken  by  Puritan  nonconformists  on 
the  Scripture  model  for  the  institution  of  a  church,  now 

1  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  115. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  422.  8  Ibid.,  pp.  422,  423. 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OP" ENGLANI).'         iOl' 

find  full  support  in  the  works  of  churchmen,  many  other 
volumes  might  be  quoted  here.  One  of  these  J  is  almost 
radical  in  its  tenor.  The  author  states  his  object  to  be  to 
account  for  "  the  apparently  wide  differences  between  the 
primitive  and  the  modern  forms  of  some  Christian  institu 
tions."  He  endeavors  to  trace  "the  gradual  steps  by  which 
the  congregational  system  of  early  times  passed  into  the 
diocesan  system  of  later  times."  2 

While  reason  and  occasion  enough  were  found  in  the 
serious  points  already  referred  to  to  give  significance  to 
the  term  "  nonconformity  "  as  applied  to  the  principles  of 
the  English  Puritans  when  claiming  their  rights  and  privi 
leges  in  the  reform  and  reconstruction  of  their  own  church, 
it  was  in  matters  and  details  of  lesser  significance  that 
their  name,  not  as  Separatists,  but  as  Nonconformists,  re 
ceived  its  popular  and  familiar  use. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the  stupendous  change  to 
which  the  whole  people  of  England  had  to  be  reconciled 
and  trained  in  the  transition  from  the  mode  of  worship 
and  instruction  and  religious  discipline  under  the  Roman 
observance  to  the  Protestant  institution.  The  English  lan 
guage  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  Latin  in  all  the  services. 
Public  worship,  in  which  all  the  people  could  intelligently 
take  a  part,  was  to  be  substituted  for  the  altar  service  so 
largely  performed  by  the  priest.  The  Lord's  Supper,  ac 
cording  to  the  account  in  the  New  Testament  as  a  sacra 
ment  to  be  perpetuated,  —  was  it  the  re-enactment  of  a 
sacrificial  offering  of  a  victim,  or  a  fraternal  service  of 
communion  at  a  common  table  for  a  share  in  a  commemo 
rative  observance  ?  3 

1  The  Growth  of  Church  Institutions.     By  the  Rev.  Edwhi  Hatch,  M.A., 
D.D.,  Reader  in  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  University  of  Oxford.     1887. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

8  When  one  whose  training  has  been  under  the  simple  services  of  the  Puri 
tanism  of  our  modern  days  sees  for  the  first  time  the  service  of  the  Mass,  — 
with  what  is  to  him  a  dumb  show,  with  the  attitudes,  the  bowings,  and 
genuflections  of  the  priest,  as  he  consecrates  and  lifts  the  wafer  for  adoration,  — 


PURITAN   AGE. 

The  people  were  to  have  a  manual  for  worship  and  the 
Bible  in  their  own  English  tongue.  Perfection  and  satis 
faction  could  not  be  reached  at  once,  but  required  tentative 
stages,  opening  many  subjects  for  intelligent  differences  in 
matters  of  opinion  and  conscience.  The  first  prayer-book, 
the  contents  of  which  were  gathered  and  translated  by  a 
company  of  divines  from  previous  service-books,  was  pub 
lished  under  Edward  VI.  in  1549,  and  a  second  one  with 
changes  appeared  in  the  same  reign.  It  was  again  altered 
in  1558,  in  1603,  and  1661.  The  last  prayer-book  differs 
from  the  first  principally  in  the  omission  of  the  name  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  in  the  prayers  offered  to  saints  ;  of  prayers 
for  the  dead ;  of  the  mixing  of  wine  and  water  in  the  cup ; 
and  of  all  the  elaborate  ceremonies  in  baptism  except  the 
crossing  of  the  forehead.  Queen  Mary  suspended  all  the 
reforming  acts  previous  to  her  reign,  so  that  they  had  to 
be  renewed  under  Elizabeth.  The  psalter  had  been  pub 
lished  in  Latin  and  English,  and  the  Bible  "  lessons  "  had 
been  read  in  English  in  1540.  In  1544  Cranmer  trans 
lated  the  Litany  into  English.  The  English  Bible  called 
by  his  name  was  the  first  used  in  the  churches  till  the 
Bishops'  Bible  was  substituted  in  1604. 

The  rapacity  of  courtiers  and  nobles  to  share  and  appro 
priate  the  spoils  of  the  "  religious  houses,"  their  wealth  in 
treasures  and  lands,  when  they  were  suppressed  by  Henry 
VIII.,  had  a  most  disastrous  effect  upon  the  moralities  of 
the  Church.  These  spoils  fed  the  pride,  the  rivalry,  and 
the  worldliness  of  those  who  were  enriched  by  them,  and 

he  may  be  moved  to  ask  himself  if,  by  any  effort  of  the  imagination,  he  can 
conceive  of  an  apostle  as  going  through  that  observance  before  the  early 
disciples  ?  Some  readers  may  have  shared  the  wonder  of  the  writer  on  wit 
nessing  the  observance  of  the  Mass  in  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  with 
all  the  pomp  and  gorgeousness  of  the  scenic  show.  The  thought  that  rose 
to  his  mind  was  whether,  if  the  dome  of  the  superb  temple  could  have 
been  riven  and  the  Apostle  to  whom  it  is  dedicated  could  have  descended  into 
it,  he  would  have  understood  what  was  going  on  there.  It  would  have  been 
interesting  to  have  heard  his  successor  explain  the  situation  to  him. 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND.         103 

plundered  the  common  people  of  many  resources  and  ap 
pliances  which  the  piety  of  earlier  ages  had  consecrated 
to  their  use. 

The  next  great  and  vital  question  to  engage  the  zeal 
of  the  Puritans,  as  they  rightfully  claimed  to  exercise  it 
in  the  reconstruction  of  a  reformed  church,  was  the  in 
ternal  constitution  and  administration  of  the  Church  itself. 
Their  own  principles  and  views  on  this  subject  will  come 
before  us  subsequently  when  we  have  to  follow  the  course 
pursued  by  that  representation  of  the  Puritan  body  which 
instituted  in  the  Massachusetts  colony  the  "  particular 
Church,"  so  designated  by  Governor  Winthrop.  It  is 
sufficient  to  anticipate  here,  by  saying,  that  while  every 
baptized  person  in  the  realm  was  held  to  be  a  member  of 
tjie  Church  of  England,  the  Puritans  maintained  that  a 
Church  must  consist  only  of  "  Actual  Believers,  True  Dis 
ciples,  such  as  can  give  some  account  how  the  Grace  of 
God  hath  appeared  unto,  and  wrought  that  heavenly  change 
in  them." 

The  Puritans  gladly  recognized  the  advance  made  by 
radically  reforming  principles  in  substituting  a  service  of 
prayer  in  English  and  intelligent  worship  and  instruction, 
for  what  in  their  view  were  "  the  mumblings  and  bowings 
of  the  priest,  with  his  back  to  the  people,  in  his  own  idola 
trous  mummeries."  But  an  attachment  and  reverence  for 
all  entailed  and  endeared  usages  and  observances,  curiously 
mingled  with  superstitions,  charms,  and  legends,  had  a 
strong  hold  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  common 
people.  It  was  in  rude  and  unsympathizing  dealings  with 
these,  —  the  observance  of  saints'  days,  praying  with  the 
rosary,  the  use  of  the  cross  as  a  talisman,  the  repetition 
for  scores  of  times  of  the  Pater  Noster  and  the  Ave, 
and  many  other  lingerings  of  the  traditionary  piety,  —  that 
the  Puritans  drew  upon  themselves  odium  as  over-scrupu 
lous  precisians,  and  radicals.  For  example,  the  Puritans 
"'  scrupled  the  Cross  in  Baptism."  They  did  so,  and  they 


104  THE   PURITAN    AGL'. 

gave  reasons  for  their  scruples.  Among  all  the  parties 
and  sects  of  Christians  there  were  none  to  whom  the 
Cross  of  Christ  had  a  more  august  or  holy  significance  than 
to  the  Puritans  ;  but  it  was  as  a  reality,  and  not  as  a  sym 
bol,  that  they  prized  it.  They  believed  that  in  the  Roman 
observance  the  cross  had  been  turned  to  idolatrous,  unintel 
ligent,  and  merely  formal  uses,  as  a  charm  or  phylactery. 
They  "  scrupled  "  its  trivial  and  mechanical  desecration. 
The  ritual  for  the  baptism  of  an  infant  by  a  priest  of  the 
Roman  Church  was  then  —  and  is  now,  unchanged  —  very 
elaborate  in  its  method,  designed  to  signify  the  transcendent 
importance  and  efficacy  assigned  to  it.  Godfathers  and  god 
mothers  to  assume  or  share  the  responsibilities  of  parents 
were  to  be  present.  The  priest  blows  thrice  on  the  face 
of  the  child,  bidding  the  devil  in  it  "  to  give  place  to  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Then  he  makes  the  sign  of  the  cross  on 
the  forehead  and  breast,  with  words  of  exhortation.  Then, 
after  prayer,  the  priest  blesses  some  salt  and  puts  a  grain 
of  it  into  the  mouth  of  the  child,  with  more  exhortation, 
and  exorcism  of  the  Evil  Spirit,  and  repetition  of  the 
cross.  The  service  so  far  was  in  the  porch  of  the  church  ; 
then  coming  into  the  church,  the  priest  with  spittle  from 
his  mouth  touches  the  ears  and  the  nostrils  of  the  infant, 
with  further  exhortation  and  exorcism.  Then  with  holy 
oil  he  anoints  the  infant  on  the  breast  and  between  the 
shoulders,  and  while  the  god-parents  are  holding  or  touch 
ing  him,  the  priest  names  the  child,  and  thrice  pours  water 
on  or  dips  it,  repeating  the  formula.  There  is  another 
anointing  with  oil  and  balm,  or  "  holy  chrism  ; "  a  linen 
cloth  is  put  upon  the  head  of  the  child,  a  lighted  candle 
is  put  into  its  hand,  and  there  is  a  concluding  exhor 
tation.  Every  act  and  element  of  the  service  is  symbolic,  , 
with  explanatory  comment.  Those  who  prepared  the 
English  Prayer  Book  "  scrupled  "  and  omitted  every  part 
of  this  ritual  except  the  use  of  the  cross.  The  Puritans' 
carried  their  scruples  one  step  further,  and  "  scrupled  " 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    105 

the  cross.     They  asked,  "  Why  omit  all  the  rest  and  re 
tain  this  ? " 

The  position  taken  by  the  Puritans  as  to  the  sign  of  the 
cross  —  because  of  its  superstitious  use  —  may  well  be 
regarded  as  suggesting  their  general  and  comprehensive 
objections  to  all  mere  "  ceremonials."  They  wished  to 
displace  them  by  plain,  intelligible,  direct  instruction  that 
should  be  enlightening  and  edifying,  engaging  the  thoughts 
and  reaching  the  consciences  of  the  people.  Our  concern 
in  these  pages  is  with  that  class  of  the  Puritans,  the 
founders  of  Massachusetts,  who  themselves  defined  their 
relation  to  the  English  Church  as  one  not  of  open  hostil 
ity,  antagonism,  or  separation,  but  of  nonconformity.  Ac 
knowledging  their  birthright  and  heritage  in  it  as  the 
source  of  their  Christian  nurture,  they  mourned  over  the 
corruptions,  superstitions,  and  enslavement  to  which  it 
had  been  subjected  under  the  Papal  dominancy,  and  they 
wished  to  rid  it  of  everything  foreign  and  inconsistent  in 
its  institution  and  discipline.  They  came  to  look  upon  the 
usages  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  which  they  renounced 
as  precisely  answering  to  those  u  traditions  of  the  elders" 
for  which  Jesus  rebuked  the  Jews,  as  nullifying  or  depre 
ciating  the  positive  commandments  of  God.  And  at  this 
point  we  must  broadly  distinguish  between  this  class  of 
Nonconformists  and  the  Sectaries  of  the  period,  with 
whom  they  are  often  strangely  confounded.  In  the  fer 
ment  and  distraction,  chiefly  among  the  ranks  of  the  com 
mon  people,  the  illiterate,  husbandmen  and  artisans,  which 
followed  upon  the  general  enfranchisement  of  thought,  and 
the  free  use  of  the  Scriptures,  individualism  in  opinion  and 
belief  ran  to  the  wildest  extremes.  Enthusiasm  and  fanati 
cism,  with  every  form  of  eccentricity  and  extravagance, 
came  in  to  unsettle  order  and  breed  confusion.  The  dingy 
old  volumes,  now  gathered  in  the  proper  receptacles  for 
them,  remain  to  us  as  exponents,  attempted  classifications, 
or  definitions  and  descriptions  of  all  the  strange  fancies, 


106  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

conceits,  devices,  heresies,  and  delusions,  any  one  of  which 
sufficed  as  raw  material  for  a  sect,  a  congregation,  or  even 
a  "  church."  Many  of  these  freely  avowed  an  open  hos 
tility  to  civil  government,  magistracy,  and  the  laws  of 
morality  and  common  decency.  "  Antinomians,"  "  Fami- 
lists,"  "  Libertines,"  and  "  Adamites  "  are  the  embers  left 
in  English  speech,  for  which  one  has  to  seek  the  defini 
tions  in  old  tractates,  but  which,  when  in  living  use,  were 
brands  threatening  fearful  conflagrations.  The  stock  basis 
of  Bible  sanction  for  one  of  these  sects,  the  "  Adamites," 
is  thus  stated :  "  Their  joint  issue  is,  that  clothes  were 
appointed  not  so  much  to  cover  shame,  as  to  discover  sin  ; 
and  that  therefore,  they  being  such  as  Adam  was  in  his 
innocency,  ought  to  goe  naked,  and  not  to  be  ashamed."  1 

It  would  be  unprofitable  to  concern  ourselves  further 
with  the  extravagances  of  individualism  and  sectarism  in 
this  period  of  distraction  in  England.  Reference  to  it 
has  been  in  place  here,  solely  to  distinguish  every  form 
and  manifestation  of  this  spirit  from  the  nonconformity  of 
the  founders  of  Massachusetts.  The  relations  to  be  given 
further  on  in  these  pages  of  the  way  in  which  every  excess 
of  individualism  and  sectarism  was  dealt  with  by  court 
and  magistracy,  will  themselves  suffice  to  show  the  breadth 
of  that  distinction.  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  thoroughly 
familiar  as  he  was  with  the  character  and  purposes  of 
those  founders,  and  their  keenly  watchful  enemy  at  the 
Court,  thus  fairly  defines  their  motive  in  their  exile.  He 
says  that  the  Puritans  had  become  discouraged  as  to  any 
further  pressure  of  reform  in  the  Church,  and  therefore 
that  "  some  of  the  discreeter  sort,  to  avoid  what  they  found 
themselves  subject  unto,  made  use  of  their  friends  to  pro 
cure  from  the  Council  for  the  affairs  of  New  England  to 
settle  a  Colony  within  their  limits." 

After  John  Cotton  had  been  the  Vicar  of  St.  Botolph 
nearly  a  score  of  years,  he  came  under  the  hand  of  Laud 

1  The  Dippers  Dipt,  etc.     By  Dr.  Daniel  Featley.     London,  1651,  p.  35. 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OP   ENGLAND.         107 

for  nonconformity.  He  was  informed  against  at  the  High 
Commission  for  "  refusing  to  kneel  at  the  Lord's  Supper."  1 
Cotton  says :  "  When  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  Diocese  [Dr. 
Mountaigne]  offered  me  liberty  upon  once  kneeling  at  the 
Sacrament  with  him  the  next  Lord's  Day  after,  I  durst  not 
accept  his  offer  of  liberty  upon  once  kneeling."  2  Cotton 
"  scrupled  kneeling  "  as  a  remnant  of  the  "  idolatrous  sac 
rifice  of  the  Mass."  The  Earl  of  Dorset,  his  warm  friend, 
interceded  in  vain  in  his  behalf,  assuring  him  "  that  if  he 
had  been  guilty  of  drunkenness,  uncleanness,  or  any  such 
lesser  fault,  he  could  have  obtained  his  pardon ;  but  as  he 
was  guilty  of  Puritanism  and  nonconformity  the  crime  was 
unpardonable,  and  therefore  he  advised  him  to  flee  for  his 
safety." 

The  hundred  scholars  and  divines  who,  from  the  train 
ing  of  the  English  universities,  and  many  of  t]iem  from 
incumbency  of  parishes  and  service  in  the  pulpits  of  the 
English  Church,  came  to  New  England  in  its  first  age  to 
lay  the  foundations  here,  were  the  peers  in  every  respect 
of  their  conformist  fellows  whom  they  left  behind.  Their 
nonconformity  in  matters  of  discipline  and  ritual  had 
drawn  upon  them  the  processes  of  the  bishops  and  their 
spiritual  courts.  Bands  of  earnest  laymen,  who  had  en 
joyed  and  valued  their  ministry,  preceded,  accompanied,  or 
welcomed  them  here.  The  model  for  church  institution, 
whicli  they  established,  when  free  in  the  wilderness  to  fol 
low  their  own  consciences  and  preferences,  exhibits  in  its 
divergences  the  character  and  quality  of  their  noncon 
formity.  The  laymen  improved  their  opportunity  to  select 
and  institute  their  own  religious  teachers,  which  they  had 
had  no  power  of  doing  under  the  parochial  system  of  Eng 
land.  They  could  constitute  their  churches  of  "  covenanted 
believers."  Instead  of  the  "  dumb  reading  "  of  the  Scrip 
tures  by  appointed  lessons,  they  could  accompany  the  read- 

1  Neal,  Puritans,  i.  317. 

2  Way  of  Congregational  Churches,  p.  19. 


108  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

ing  with  exposition.  They  could  observe  the  sacraments 
according  to  what  they  believed  to  be  their  original  pur 
pose  and  method.  They  were  free  in  offering  prayer,  and 
not  bound  to  a  service-book.  All  the  changes  and  modi 
fications  made  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  not 
reconciled  the  Puritans  to  its  use.  It  fettered  their  spirits 
and  their  tongues.  It  was  to  them  formal  and  mechanical 
in  its  effect,  routine,  and  rigidity.1  Experience  ever  since, 
however,  has  proved  that  it  is  rather  by  taste  and  tempera 
ment  than  by  conscience,  that  individuals  gathered  for 
public  worship  prefer  freedom  or  formality  in  its  exercise. 
It  appears  that  at  this  time  in  England,  where  neither  re 
straint  nor  obligation  interposes,  of  those  who  habitually 
engage  in  public  worship,  nearly  an  equal  number  accept 
and  disuse  the  Church  forms.  Calvin,  the  chief  religious 
guide  for.  the  Puritans,  gave  three  reasons  for  set  prayers, 
which  might  have  had  weight  with  them,  but  did  not : 
(1)  To  provide  for  the  weakness  of  some  ministers ;  (2)  For 
general  consent  and  agreement  in  churches  ;  (3)  To  cross 
the  liberty  of  some  ministers  who  affect  novelties. 

Under  the  rule  of  the  Roman  Church  there  had  been  an 
ingeniously  devised  scheme  to  permeate  secular  life  with 
a  course  of  religious  observances  additional  to  those  of 
the  weekly  Sabbath.  A  calendar  of  the  year  was  prepared 
designating  events  and  methods  in  Christian  history  and 
training.  Just  and  beautiful  in  conception  and  purpose, 
this  system  became  burdensome,  perverted,  and  overladen. 

1  The  objections  of  the  Nonconformists  to  the  Common  Prayer  Book,  and 
some  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  are  stated  forcibly,  but  temperately, 
and  with  dignified  restraint  of  language,  in  the  Preface  to  the  Directory  for 
Worship,  prepared  by  the  Westminster  Assembly.  As  lack  of  sympathy  so 
readily  becomes  antipathy,  these  objections  soon  passed  into  alienations  and 
strong  dislikes  often  expressed  with  bitterness.  Some  of  the  Puritan  party 
still  attending  the  parish  churches  were  wont  to  stay  outside  during  the  pre 
liminary  services,  and  then  go  in  to  listen  to  the  sermon.  Every  reference  to 
a  service  of  prayer  in  the  New  Testament  suggested  to  them  a  free  outpouring 
of  sentiment  and  utterance.  They  could  not  conceive  of  a  book  being  used 
on  such  occasions. 


NONCONFORMISTS    AND    THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND.          109 

Festivals  and  fasts,  saints'  days,  revels,  games,  fairs,  pil 
grimages,  holy  places,  exorcisms,  and  puerile  and  debasing 
legends  and  superstitions  were  inextricably  mixed  in  this 
system,  with  results  and  influences  both  good  and  bad. 
The  English  Church  thought  it  wise  to  retain  some  of  the 
usages  which  had  come  into  it  from  Rome,  for  the  same 
reason  that  the  Roman  Church  retained  some  of  the  sanc 
tities  of  Paganism,  because  of  fond  attachments  and  asso 
ciations  holding  the  common  people.  But  the  Puritans, 
with  an  indiscriminating  aversion  and  contempt,  cast  aside 
all  the  sweet  and  grateful  sentiments  and  associations 
wrought  in  with  the  heart  tendrils  of  affection  in  these 
Church  observances  in  secular  things. 

In  this  connection  reference  should  be  made  to  one  of 
the  least  attractive  traits  or  principles  of  the  Puritans  as 
shown  afterward  in  their  intense  aversion  to  the  observ 
ance  of  holy  days,  which  were  in  fact  holidays,  including 
Christmas,  and  which  prompted  them  to  pass  an  interdict 
upon  them  in  their  legislation  here.  But  it  was  by  no 
means  only  the  Nonconformists  who  complained  of  and 
sought  to  reduce  the  elaborate  system  of  semi-sacred  ob 
servances  which  crowded  the  calendar  of  the  year,  and 
seriously  interfered  with  the  performance  of  the  regular 
duties  and  labors  of  life  in  the  home,  the  field,  and  the 
workshop.  The  administrators  of  the  Church  found  their 
discretion  and  efforts  severely  taxed  in  dealing  with  the 
popular  habits  of  idleness  and  dissipation  encouraged  by 
this  usage  of  holy  days.  Archbishop  Cranmer,  in  a  letter 
to  Cromwell,  complains  of  "  having  found  the  people  of  my 
diocese  very  obstinately  given  to  observe  and  keep  with 
solemnity  the  holidays  lately  abrogated,  and  that  the  people 
were  partly  animated  thereto  by  .  the  curates."  l  Before 
the  Reformation  Cromwell  had  drafted  for  the  Commons 
a  complaint  to  the  King  of  the  harmful  interference  with 
trade  and  agriculture  caused  by  the  use  of  holy  days  as 

1  No.  198,  of  "Letters  of  Cranmer,"  collected  by  Rev.  Henry  Jenkyns. 


110  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

holidays.  The  complaint  recites  that  "  A  great  number  of 
holy  days  now  at  this  present  time,  with  very  small  devo 
tion,  be  solemnized  and  kept  throughout  this  your  realm, 
upon  the  which  many  great,  abominable,  and  execrable 
vices,  idle  and  wanton  sports,  be  used  and  exercised,  — 
which  holy  days  might  be  made  fewer  in  number."  *  As 
a  result  of  this  complaint,  Convocation  on  July  15,  1586, 
"  by  the  King's  Highness'  authority  as  supreme  head  on 
earth  of  the  Church  of  England,"  declared  that  the  number 
of  these  holy  days  was  — 

"  The  occasion  of  much  sloth  and  idleness,  the  very  nourish  of 
thieves,  vagabonds,  and  divers  other  unthriftiness  and  inconven 
iences  and  loss  of  man's  food,  many  times  being  clean  destroyed 
through  the  superstitious  observance  of  the  said  holy  days,  in  not 
taking  the  opportunity  of  good  and  serene  weather  in  time  of 
harvest;  but  also  pernicious  to  the  souls  of  many  men,  which 
being  enticed  by  the  licentious  vacation  and  liberty  of  those  holi 
days,  do  upon  the  same  commonly  use  and  practise  more  excess, 
riot,  and  superfluity  than  upon  any  other  days."  2 

The  Nonconformists,  with  the  thoroughness  which  they 
demanded  in  the  work  of  purification,  required  that  all 
these  trivial,  superstitious  devices  of  the  Roman  domina 
tion  should  be  discredited  and  disused,  and  that  the  Sab 
bath  alone  should  be  held  to  be  a  holy-day,  and  reverently 
observed  as  such.  The  delusions,  frauds,  and  superstitions 
connected  with  these  holy  days  outweighed  in  their  minds 
any  possible  service  they  could  have  for  edification.  It  was 
the  repudiation  or  discountenance  by  the  Puritans  of  all 
these  lighter,  gentler  agencies  and  influences  for  fostering 
religion  in  church  and  home,  on  the  village  green  and  in 
popular  festivals,  that  drove  them  into  a  grimness  and  aus 
terity  wholly  unnecessary  to  the  vitality  of  their  own  faith, 
and  repulsive  to  all  genial  persons.  We  may  look  in  this 

1  Fronde's  History  of  England,  i.  208. 

2  Stephen's  Ecclesiastical  Statutes,  p.  333  ;  Strype's  Cranmer,  i.  122. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    Ill 

direction  to  find  an  explanation  of  a  fact  which  presses 
itself  upon  the  notice  of  every  one  versed  in  the  details  of 
New  England  history  during  its  Puritan  age,  and  the  con 
temporary  history  of  the  Puritans  who  remained  in  Eng 
land.  The  influences  of  their  exile,  with  deprivations  and 
hardships,  and  their  freedom  to  follow  out  to  extremes 
their  own  proclivities,  prejudices,  and  fancies,  tended  to  an 
exaggeration  of  the  natural  austerity  of  Puritanism  here, 
while  it  was  held  in  restraint  among  Puritans  at  home. 
The  ivy-clad  churches  and  towers,  the  chime  of  bells,  the 
sports  on  the  green,  the  village  festivals,  the  bridal  revel 
ries,  and  the  holiday  delights,  all  entering  into  the  heri 
tage  of  "  merry  England,"  were  not  without  their  softening 
and  amiable  working  upon  the  sentiments  even  of  those 
least  in  sympathy  with  them  because  of  their  Puritan 
spirit. 

But  the  exiles  here  parted  with  all  these  mute  or  plead 
ing  influences  which  soften  and  enrich  the  heart  and  cheer 
the  routine  of  toil  and  brighten  the  family  home.  The 
first  generation  born  from  the  Puritans  on  this  soil  were 
of  stiffer  and  sterner  fibre  than  their  parents,  and  such  of 
them  as  found  their  way  to  the  old  home  always  became 
mellowed,  even  if  their  fellowship  there  was  confined  to 
the  dissenting  households.  The  Puritans  remaining  in 
England,  still  under  the  influence  of  traditional  beliefs  and 
ecclesiastical  observances,  were  less  repelling  in  their  aus 
terity  than  their  brethren  who  had  gone  into  the  wilderness. 
The  former  still  maintained  neighborly  and  companionable 
intercourse  with  many  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with 
their  own  ways.  The  exiles  were  isolated  from  all  liberal 
izing  and  expanding  influences,  and  restricted  to  a  fellow 
ship —  and  that  a  very  close  one — whose  necessity  it  was 
to  be  all  of  one  mind,  in  full  accord  as  to  purposes  and 
methods.  They  were  compelled  to  discover  by  their  own 
experience  that  this  was  impracticable.  The  highest  rule 
of  guidance  which  they  recognized  was  that  of  the  indi- 


112  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

vidual  conscience  "  enlightened  by  the  Word."  But  this 
enlightened  conscience  was  not  a  common  luminary.  In 
dividuals  most  tenacious  of  their  own  consciences  were 
most  grudging  of  the  consciences  of  others. 

One  is  almost  disposed  to  think  that  "  consciences  "  first 
came  into  recognition  and  use  under  those  times  and  cir 
cumstances.  Consciences  thenceforward  claim  a  part  and 
influence  in  affairs  of  truth  and  duty,  and  in  collisions  of 
authority  and  controversy  such  as  had  not  before  enlisted 
them.  Certainly  the  range  and  province  of  conscience 
were  widened,  and  its  activity  and  tenderness  were  inten 
sified.  Very  many  matters  not  before  wonted  to  engage, 
much  less  to  disturb  it,  came  under  its  cognizance.  The 
claim  of  "  liberty  of  conscience  "  came  in  with  the  Reforma 
tion.  The  world  had  not  heard  of  it  before  in  the  relations 
in  which  it  was  now  asserted.  Under  the  old  church  dis 
cipline  the  office  of  conscience  in  some  of  its  sternest  and 
some  of  its  most  delicate  exercises  was  assumed  by  the 
spiritual  director.  Often  did  he  create,  or  reconstruct,  or 
adapt  a  conscience  for  matters  not  within  the  province  of 
the  natural  conscience.  He  could  generally  prescribe  sat 
isfactorily  what  was  to  be  believed  and  what  was  to  be  done. 
The  Protestant  was  put  into  a  largely  changed  position  and 
relation  to  his  conscience,  which  was  set  under  a  divine 
direction,  —  silent,  not  communicated  by  speech,  except 
through  Scriptural  help,  but  left  to  thought  and  serious 
interpretation. 

The  conscience  of  a  man  like  Roger  Williams,  and  that 
of  a  woman  like  Mary  Dyer,  were  original  and  rich  in  their 
processes.  There  had  previously  been  many  consciences 
as  profoundly  earnest,  as  highly  illuminated.  But  theirs 
were  engaged  on  new  materials,  exercised  upon  new  sub 
jects,  and  made  keen  and  aggressive  by  sharp  activity  in 
their  collisions  with  other  sorts  of  consciences.  Yet  there 
must  have  been  in  Puritanism  a  spirit  other  and  better  than 
that  of  a  peevish,  perverse  scrupulosity,  which  alienated 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND.         113 

from  the  Church  as  their  heritage  by  birth  and  love  the 
hundred  scholars  and  divines  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
and  brought  them  with  their  flocks  into  these  rude  wil 
derness  settlements  to  do  patiently  their  severe  life-work. 
Had  the  prompting  come  from  mere  contrariety  of  mind 
or  temper,  it  would  have  driven  them  into  eccentric  indi 
vidualities,  with  no  accord  in  one  earnest,  consenting  accep 
tance  of  doctrine,  duty,  institution,  and  discipline.  That 
the  distinctive  principles  for  which  the  Nonconformists 
stood  when  the  question  of  reform  and  reconstruction  of 
the  system  of  the  Church  —  clearing  it  of  many  abomina 
tions  —  was  first  fully  opened,  were  not  prompted  by  ca 
price,  by  unworthy  personal  aims,  or  by  any  narrowness  of 
spirit,  has  been  abundantly  assured  by  the  persistency  with 
which  Puritan  principles  have  been  maintained  in  England 
from  that  time  to  this.  They  have  not  only  survived,  but 
have  aggressively  and  yet  peacefully  continued  their  origi 
nal  protests  and  their  consistent  reforming  work.  What 
we  in  this  land  owe  to  the  mastery  secured  by  Puritan 
principles  from  their  first  full  assertion,  recognition,  and 
prevalence  here,  needs  no  rehearsal  on  these  pages.  These" 
principles,  as  relating  to  religion,  independently  of  poli 
tics, —  save  as  they  necessarily  involved  a  radical  influence 
in  political  affairs,  —  were  thus  set  forth  by  the  Puritans  : 
The  sole  authority  and  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures ; 
the  parity  of  Christian  ministers  ;  the  independency  of  the 
churches  in  their  institution  and  discipline ;  the  right  of 
the  laity  to  choose  their  own  religious  teachers,  and  free 
dom  in  worship  and  ritual.  Enough  has  been  said  ~npr>Ti 
the  resolute  and  consistent  persistency  of  the  Puritans  in 
refusing  to  be  led  outside  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  slough 
of  tradition  and  patristic  divinity.  The  parity  of  the  min 
istry,  with  all  the  inferences  and  consequences  following 
from  it,  was  the  most  startling  and  revolutionary  of  all  the 
principles  of  Puritanism,  as  it  leaped  back  through  all  the 
towering  assumptions  and  corruptions  of  the  hierarchical 

8 


114  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

centuries  to  the  simplicity  and  equality  of  the  first  Chris 
tian  brotherhood.  Whatever  of  undue  or  harmful  influence 
we  may  see  occasion  in  the  following  pages  for  ascribing 
to  the  "  elders "  in  the  severity  of  the  administration  of 
the  Massachusetts  theocracy,  we  may  rightfully  claim  for 
the  Puritans  the  supreme  achievement  of  prostrating,  and 
for  all  time  disabling,  all  that  is  fairly  objectionable  in  what 
is  conveyed  by  the  phrase,  "  the  power  of  the  clergy,"  — 
the  assumption  and  exercise  by  them  of  a  ghostly,  sacer 
dotal  sway.  Till  within  recent  years  one  might  read  in 
the  observations  and  criticisms  of  foreign  visitors  to  this 
country  remarks  to  the  effect  that  under  our  voluntary 
system  of  religion,  with  no  patronage  from  the  State,  there 
was  no  encouragement  for  devoting  one's  self  to  the  clerical 
profession,  as  it  offered  no  field  for  promotion,  advancement, 
or  ambition.  That  this  is  so,  our  tribute  of  award,  of  grati 
tude,  and  praise,  in  terms  not  easy  of  exaggeration,  is  due 
to  our  Puritan  founders.  What  is  there,  or  ought  there 
to  be,  in  the  Christian  ministry  to  provide  a  field  for  ambi 
tion,  its  favors,  lures,  and  rewards  ?  There  may  have  been 
since  the  first  Puritan  age  something  more  of  decent  re 
gards  for  consistency  and  propriety  in  the  conditions  for 
advancement  in  the  Church  of  England  in  the  places  for 
clerical  ambition,  and  in  the  prizes  of  titles  and  honors. 
But  no  improvement  in  methods  would  have  reconciled  the 
Puritans  to  a  system  which  under  a  reformation  should  have 
preserved  even  a  semblance  of  the  old  Papal  hierarchy, 
which  tasked  the  powers  of  language  to  express  the  grada 
tion  of  dignities  in  priestly  offices.  "  His  Holiness,"  "  His 
Grace,"  "  His  Eminence,"  "  Very  Reverend,"  "  Most  Rev 
erend,"  "  Right  Reverend,"  and  the  other  variations  for 
expressing  successive  superlatives  of  honor  and  dignity 
were  as  chaff  to  the  Puritan,  to  whom  the  noblest  of  titles 
was  that  of  "  Minister  of  God's  Word."  Nor  should  we 
forget  that  as  the  direct  result  of  this  voluntary  rejec 
tion  by  the  Puritans  of  all  these  sacerdotal  and  hierarchical 


NONCONFORMISTS    AND   THE    CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND.          115 

pretensions,  laymen  for  the  first  time  reclaimed  their  full 
equality  in  all  the  rights,  functions,  and  methods  of  institu 
tion  and  discipline  connected  with  religion.  And  it  is  of 
the  gravest  import  that  our  country  —  for  at  least  this  first 
century  of  its  life  —  has  been  saved  from  all  complications 
of  its  policy  through  ecclesiastical,  hierarchical,  and  sacer 
dotal  prerogatives,  such  as  have  contemporaneously  dis 
tracted  the  administration  of  secular  affairs  in  France, 
Belgium,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Austria.  There  is,  indeed, 
a  large  variety  of  ecclesiastical  titles  strewn  over  our  coun 
try  among  sectarian  dignitaries,  from  cardinals  downward. 
But  as  these  have  no  baronial,  temporal  jurisdiction,  no 
privileges  or  immunities  above  the  humblest  citizen,  the 
titles  interest  only  those  who  bear  or  confer  them,  and  are 
as  harmless  as  the  grandiloquent  epithets  of  Free  Masonry, 
Odd  Fellowship,  and  of  the  knights,  encampments,  and 
commanderies.  Occasionally  we  may  see  some  trivial  and 
ludicrous  affectation  in  here  and  there  a  Bishop  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  fold  in  our  States,  after  the  enjoyment 
of  the  palatial  hospitality  of  an  English  prelate,  on  return 
ing  home,  using  in  his  signature  the  name  of  the  State  in 
which  is  his  diocese,  or  donning  the  Episcopal  apron,  the 
knee-gaiters,  and  the  shovel  hat.  These  are  likely  to  sug 
gest  to 'the  spectator  a  craving  in  the  dignitary  for  other 
prerogatives  unattainable  here.  The  mere  profession  and 
office  of  a  minister  of  religion  are  sure  to  draw  to  him 
from  the  average  class  of  sober-minded  persons  as  much  of 
regard  and  influence  as  it  is  well  for  him  to  have,  simply 
on  the  ground  —  assumed  or  conceded  —  that  his  converse 
is  with  interests  above  and  beyond  the  secularities  of 
life.  The  spirit  of  Puritanism  distrusts  and  rebukes  all 
sacerdotalism,  and  is  even  impatient  of  much  clerical 
ism.  To  the  Puritans  Christendom  is  indebted  for  first 
giving  bold  and  practical  reassertion  to  the  grand  procla 
mation  of  an  apostle,  that  every  Christian  is  his  own 
"king  and  priest  unto  God,"  capable  of  discharging  for 


116  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

himself   the   two  highest   offices   of   the   secular  and   the 
religious  life. 

The  Massachusetts  exiles,  after  a  thirty  years'  trial  of 
their  own  church  institution,  had  learned  to  state  with 
some  precision  the  substance  and  extent  of  their  noncon 
formity  with  their  mother  Church.  The  General  Court  in 
December,  1660,  in  an  address  to  King  Charles  II.,  depre 
cating  his  possible  interference  with  their  religious  liberties, 
wrote  thus :  — 

"Wee  could  not  live  without  the  publicke  worship  of  God. 
Wee  were  not  permitted  the  use  of  publicke  worship  without  such 
a  yoake  of  subscription  and  conformity  as  wee  could  not  consent 
unto  without  sinne.  That  wee  might  therefore  enjoy  divine  wor 
ship  without  the  humane  mixtures,  without  offence  either  to  God, 
man,  or  our  owne  consciences,  wee,  with  leave,  but  not  without 
teares,  departed  from  our  country,  kindred,  and  fathers'  houses, 
into  this  Pathmos.  Ourselves,  who  came  away  in  our  strength, 
are,  by  reason  of  very  long  absence,  many  of  us  become  grey 
headed,  and  some  of  us  stooping,  for  age.  The  omission  of  the  pre- 
mentioned  injunctions,  together  with  the  walking  of  our  churches, 
as  to  the  point  of  order,  the  congregationall  way,  is  all  wherein 
wee  differ  from  our  Orthodox  brethren."  l 

This  frank  avowal  of  the  degree  of  dissent  or  variance, 
and  of  the  still  surviving  bond  of  accord  in  their  relations 
to  the  mother  Church,  may  stand  as  the  explanation  for 
which  we  are  seeking,  to  reconcile  an  avowed  attachment 
and  gratitude  to  it,  causing  "  teares  "  when  they  left  their 
home,  with  the  setting  up  of  a  "  way  "  of  their  own.  The 
explanation  will  pass  for  much  or  little,  according  to  the 
view  which  may  be  taken  as  to  what  constituted  the  sub 
stance  and  identity  of  the  English  Church.  Did  this  con 
sist  in  the  Church  being  the  vehicle  or  channel  for  the 
transmission  of  the  faith,  with  the  Scriptures  and  ordi 
nances,  the  institution  of  worship  and  Christian  instruc- 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  452. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    117 

tion,  —  or  in  its  remnant  of  hierarchical  government,  its 
forms,  and  ritual  ?  The  Puritan  believed  that  if  the  Church 
could  preserve  its  identity  and  its  divine  character  and 
office  after  being  cleared  of  so  many  of  the  inventions  and 
corruptions  introduced  into  it  under  the  Roman  dominancy, 
it  would  be  all  the  more  a  true  Church  if  reconstructed 
after  the  primitive  pattern.  The  passage  of  an  ocean  of 
space,  with  their  savage  surroundings,  had  not  severed  the 
dear  ties  of  kinship  with  the  English  stock,  nor  could  their 
preference  of  the  congregational  to  the  prelatical  way  de 
prive  them  of  their  church  heritage.  In  this,  as  in  so 
many  other  points  of  interest,  we  may  safely  study  the 
course  and  example  of  Winthrop.  He  never  in  terms  re 
nounced  communion  with  the  Church  of  England,  but  at 
once  adopted  and  was  fully  content  with  "  the  congrega- 
tionall  way." 

As  Puritanism,  under  its  type  of  nonconformity,  steadily 
developed  its  radical  tendency,  involving  a  complete  revolu 
tion  and  reconstruction  in  the  English  Church,  opposition 
to  its  whole  spirit  and  work  became  naturally  more  decided 
and  resolute.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  The  very 
stones  would  have  cried  out  against  the  substitution  of  a 
fully  developed  Puritanism,  for  that  partial  compromise 
with  the  old  Church  system,  which  the  statesmanship  and 
the  ecclesiastical  polity  of  the  realm  decided  could  alone 
be  practicable  and  wise.  The  grand  and  solemn  cathedrals, 
so  majestic  in  their  compass,  so  rich  in  their  symbolism, 
with  an  altar  for  every  Christian  grace  and  virtue,  with 
aisles  once  swept  by  gorgeous  processions,  with  their  shrines 
of  saints  and  every  emblem  of  sanctity  within,  and  grin 
ning  devils  and  monsters  put  to  service  outside  on  the 
buttresses  and  water-gutters,  —  these  proud  temples  of 
the  "  ages  of  faith "  would  have  protested  against  being 
turned  into  Puritan  meeting-houses.  Little  suited  or  ser 
viceable  as  they  are  for  the  reduced  solemnities  of  the 
English  ritual,  as  they  were  designed  for  more  elaborate 


118  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

uses,  the  Established  Church  has  with  difficulty  availed 
itself  of  their  empty  and  denuded  walls ;  but  a  Puritan  as 
semblage  gathered  in  them,  as  open  for  only  one  day  in  a 
week,  with  extempore  prayer,  vocal  psalmody  without  organ 
accompaniment,  and  led  by  the  pitch-pipe,  and  long  dis- 
coursings  measured  by  the  hour-glass,  would  have  been  an  in 
congruous  spectacle.  The  worshipper  in  some  of  the  larger 
ancient  church  edifices  of  Holland  and  Scotland  has  noticed, 
not  however  with  satisfaction  to  eye  or  thought,  how  parti 
tions  dividing  choir,  nave,  and  transept  afford  accommoda 
tions  to  several  companies  of  worshippers.  This  is  better, 
however,  than  the  yielding  up  of  one  portion  of  such  an 
edifice  to  the  uses  of  a  lumber-room.  The  clergy  of  the 
English  Church  have  a  plaintive  reminder  in  their  grand 
minsters  of  what  they  had  to  leave  behind  them  when 
they  parted  with  the  "  idolatries  "  of  Rome.  The  ridicule 
and  contempt  which  have  been  lavished  upon  the  early 
Puritan  meeting-houses  of  Massachusetts  have  overshot  the 
mark.  The  assumption  has  been  that  the  bareness,  grim- 
ness,  and  ugliness  of  these  structures  indicated  the  taste 
and  preferences  of  those  who  built  them.  It  was  not  so. 
They  did  the  best  they  could  in  their  straits  of  necessity, 
their  lack  of  seemly  materials,  and  dependence  upon  village 
architects  and  carpenters.  Each  renewal  and  substitution 
of  such  edifices  marked  a  steady  improvement  in  the  fit 
ness  of  things. 

It  was  certainly  with  no  view  to  laxity  or  ease  or  deliv 
erance  from  religious  restraint  and  discipline  that  the  re 
sponsible  leaders  of  the  exile  to  New  England  instituted 
by  preference  their  own  way  of  "  church  estate."  With  an 
intense  dread  of  the  extravagant  and  fanatical  sectaries 
of  that  age,  the  Puritans  were  most  exacting  and  orderly 
in  settling  their,  church  institutions, far  exceeding  in  cau 
tion  and  discipline  the  methods  of  the  English  Church. 
They  demanded  the  highest  standard  of  character,  of  abil 
ities,  and  of  learning  in  their  ministers.  Their  requisites 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OP   ENGLAND.         119 

for  church  membership  and  communion  were  such  as  only 
absolute  hypocrisy  could  trifle  with.  Accepting  only  the 
Scriptures  as  authoritative  for  them,  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  note  how  absolute  and  implicit  was  their  allegiance  to 
the  Bible. 

Yet  it  must  be  frankly  admitted,  as  already  intimated, 
that  the  influences  of  exile,  and  of  being  left  free  to  work 
out  their  own  tendencies  and  preferences,  soon  completely 
alienated  them  from  their  mother  Church ;  "  the  Lord 
Bishops  "  became  the  ogres  of  their  visions.  The  Common 
Prayer  was  defamed  as  a  "  stinted  and  formal "  service,  re 
pressive  of  devotion.  Saints'  days,  inclusive  of  Christmas, 
became  profane  and  idolatrous  observances.  The  charter 
of  the  Bay  Company  assigns  the  times  for  holding  courts, 
MS  wb  every  last  Wednesday  in  Hillary,  Easter,  Trinity,  and 
Michaelmas  Termes."  But  those  ecclesiastical  datings  never 
appear  on  the  court  records,  and  Puritan  children  born 
here  would  have  been  wholly  unable  to  define  them,  and 
probably  never  heard  them  spoken.  Very  significant  is  the 
quaint  entry  in  the  Journal  of  Judge  Sewall :  "  The  Gov 
ernor  committed  Mr.  Holyoke's  Almanac  to  me.  I  blotted 
against  Feb.  14,  Valentine  ;  March  25,  Annunciation  of  the 
B.  Virgin  ;  April  24,  Easter  ;  Sept.  29,  Michaelmass  ;  Dec. 
25,  Christmas,  and  no  more.  (K.  C.  Mart.)  was  lined  out 
before  I  saw  it.  I  touched  it  not."  1 

There  is  a  remarkable  entry  in  Governor  Winthrop's  Jour 
nal  which  may  be  cited  as  showing  the  difference  of  opinion 
entertained  here  in  1637  about  Episcopal  ordination :  — 

"April  6,  1637.  The  church  of  Concord  kept  a  day  of  humili 
ation  at  Newtown  for  ordination  of  their  elders,  and  they  chose  Mr. 
Buckly  teacher,  and  Mr.  Jones  pastor.  Upon  a  question,  moved  by 
one  sent  from  the  church  of  Salem,  it  was  resolved  by  the  ministers 
there  present  that  such  as  had  been  ministers  in  England  were  law 
ful  ministers  by  the  call  of  the  people  there,  notwithstanding  their 

1  Sewall  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 


120  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

acceptance  of  the  call  of  the  bishops  (for  which  they  humbled 
themselves,  acknowledging  it  their  sin),  but  being  come  hither 
they  accounted  themselves  no  ministers  until  they  were  called  to 
another  church,  and  that,  upon  election,  they  were  ministers  before 
they  were  solemnly  ordained."  1 

And  so  the  breach  widened  till,  through  the  action  of 
single  independent  congregations,  and  the  debates  and  plat 
forms  of  synods  summoned  and  ratified  in  their  decisions 
by  the  General  Court,  there  was  perfected  here  a  distinc 
tive  New  England  ecclesiastical  polity.  In  this  there  was 
no  trace  of  a  hierarchy.  There  was  no  primate,  no  su 
perior  or  inferior  clergy.  Laymen  partook  equally  with 
ministers  in  everything  appertaining  to  the  institution  and 
discipline  of  each  single  church.  Except  in  cases  of  scan 
dalous  disorder  there  could  be  no  interference,  but  only 
sisterly  relations  of  advice  and  sympathy  between  the 
churches.  The  platform  of  doctrinal  belief  was  adjusted 
by  the  Westminster  formulas,  and  for  a  brief  period  se 
cured  a  general  accord.  The  services  in  public  worship 
were  as  severely  naked  as  were  the  edifices  in  which  they 
were  held.  In  the  howlings  of  winter  storms  fervors  of 
feeling  were  the  substitute  for  artificial  heat.  A  singular 
conviction,  common  alike  to  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  and 
the  Massachusetts  Puritans,  held  it  to  be  wrong  to  use  in 
psalmody  any  more  words  than  was  unavoidable,  besides 
those  of  the  original,  in  metrifying  the  Psalms. 

It  was  not  till  the  lapse  of  a  period  which  marks  the 
term  of  a  generation  that  that  well-nigh  forgotten  manual, 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was  recalled  to  the  notice  of 
the  Puritan  churches  in  the  Bay.  This  was  by  a  peremp 
tory  order  from  the  King  in  1662,  that  full  liberty  should 
be  granted  to  any  persons  in  the  Colony  who  wished  to  use 
that  help  and  guide  in  their  public  worship.  But  it  was 
not  till  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  that,  that  an 

1  Journal,  i.  217. 


NONCONFORMISTS  AND  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND.    121 

assembly  gathered  in  Boston,  listened  and  responded  to 
those  services,  with  a  surpliced  priest  to  lead  them,  though 
as  yet  without  the  organ.  The  place  reluctantly  allowed  by 
the  authorities  for  those  unwelcome  exercises  was  one  of 
the  public  halls.  After  that,  an  unsympathizing  preroga 
tive  Governor,  by  his  arbitrary  encroachment  upon  the 
proprietary  rights,  and  his  defiance  of  the  earnest  protests 
of  the  owners  of  one  of  the  three  town  meeting-houses, 
took  possession  of  it  for  the  worship  of  the  Church  of 
England.  He  even  had  the  effrontery  to  suggest  that  the 
public  should  furnish  the  funds  to  support  his  clergyman 
and  his  rites.  To  this  pass  had  it  come  between  the  of 
ficials  of  that  mother  Church  from  which  the  exiles  had 
parted  with  tears,  and  their  children  who  were  grieved  by 
its  strange  appearance  among  them. 

Looking  at  the  subject  in  all  its  points  of  full  contrast, 
one  may  well  marvel  that  under  the  same  profession  of 
discipleship  in  the  Christian  religion  and  of  attachment 
to  it,  two  such  diverse  forms  of  opinion,  character,  and 
conduct  should  present  themselves  as  appeared  respectively 
in  the  English  Church  and  in  the  fold  of  Puritanism.  The 
word  "  piety  "  surely  carried  with  it  quite  different  mean 
ings  for  those  who  with  equal  sincerity  sought  to  be  guided 
by  its  rule.  But  there  were  very  different  types  of  Puri 
tanism.  Milton,  John  Howe,  and  Bunyan  were  not  of  the 
sort  of  men  in  opinion  and  temperament  that  served  for  the 
caricatures  of  Ben  Jonson  in  his  "  Bartholomew  Fayre, 
and  of  Butler  in  his  "  Hudibras."  We  may  refer  the  un- 
geniality  and  austerity  of  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  as 
shown,  for  instance,  in  their  aversion  to  and  neglect  of  all 
festival  days  bearing  sacred  names,  to  two  effective  influ 
ences  which  wrought  upon  them.  The  first  of  these  was 
that  of  their  own  sad  and  distressing  creed,  to  be  brought 
to  notice  in  the  next  chapter.  In  this,  as  they  believed, 
fallen  and  doomed  world,  with  a  race  of  beings  upon  it  a 
few  of  whom  only  were  to  escape  perdition,  all  lightness  of 


122  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

heart,  sportiveness,  and  revelry  were  unseemly  and  wicked. 
The  other  reason  for  their  discountenance  of  church  festi 
vals  might  allege  for  itself  some  justification.  They  ob 
served  that  sacred  names  for  consecrating  festive  occasions 
were  "  prophanely "  abused  by  license,  wantonness,  and 
coarse  dissipation.  The  day  after  Christmas  in  England 
found  the  jails  filled  with  rioters,  wassailers,  and  brawlers. 
Within  a  score  of  years  after  the  settlement  of  Boston,  the 
quiet  town  with  its  staid  and  rigid  ways  was  often  scan 
dalized  by  the  follies  and  excesses  of  strangers  and  sailors 
brought  here  in  the  expanding  commerce  and  traffic.  This 
was  the  occasion  of  the  following  unamiable  and  repulsive 
enactment  of  the  General  Court  in  May,  1659  :  — 

"  For  preventing  disorders  arising  in  severall  places  within  this 
jurisdiction,  by  reason  of  some  still  observing  such  festivals  as 
were  superstitiously  kept  in  other  countrys  to  the* great  dishonnor 
of  God  and  offence  of  others,  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  this 
Court,  and  the  authority  thereof,  that  whosoever  shall  be  found 
observing  any  such  day  as  Christmas  or  the  like,  either  by 
forbearing  of  labour,  feasting,  or  any  other  way,  upon  any  such 
accounts  as  aforesaid,"  shall  be  subjected  to  a  fine  of  five  shil 
lings.  The  same  enactment  forbade  "unlawful  games,  as  cards, 
dice,  etc."  l 

There  is  something  alike  pathetic  and  amusing  in  tracing 
through  the  Diary  of  good  Chief-Justice  Samuel  Sewall  the 
marks  of  his  grief,  chagrin,  and,  we  may  almost  add,  his 
spite,  at  the  intrusion  of  "the  Church"  on  the  guarded 
domain  of  Puritanism.  This,  however,  occurred  only  after 
the  revocation  of  the  Colony  Charter,  and  the  substitution 
of  another  which  substantially  put  a  period  to  the  Puritan 
age  and  administration.  There  had  come  to  be  in  the 
Colony  many  Englishmen,  occasional  visitors  from  the 
English  West  Indies,  for  purposes  of  trade,  and  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  the  British  army  and  navy.  In  the  tem- 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  366. 


NONCONFORMISTS   AND   THE   CHURCH   OP   ENGLAND.         123 

porary  period  of  arbitrary  government  under  Andros,  aided 
by  the  persistent  efforts  of  Randolph,  worship  by  the  Eng 
lish  ritual  was  introduced  in  Boston,  and  a  church  was 
built  in  1688.  From  that  period  on  to  the  War  of  Inde 
pendence  a  few  missionaries  of  the  Church  were  sent  to 
Massachusetts,  as  to  other  of  our  Colonies,  sustained  by 
funds  of  a  charitable  organization  in  England,  and  a  few 
of  the  natives  of  the  Colonies  went  thither  to  obtain  Epis 
copal  ordination.  By  some  of  these,  and  by  laymen  pre 
ferring  their  ministry,  the  object  of  procuring  from  Eng 
land  one  or  more  resident  bishops  was  earnestly  agitated. 
But  the  inherited  and  existing  opposition  to  such  temporal 
and  spiritual  ecclesiastics  as  those  from  whom  the  fathers 
had  turned  their  faces,  prevailed  through  our  whole  colonial 
period  to  effect  the  exclusion  from  our  soil  of  English 
prelacy.  After  the  Revolution  the  way  was  clear  for  the 
Episcopal,  as  for  all  other  denominations  of  Christians, 
without  favor  or  hindrance,  to  establish  its  own  policy. 
Ten  of  the  missionary  clergy  in  Connecticut  in  1783  chose 
another,  Samuel  Seabury,  to  go  by  their  request  to  seek 
consecration  in  England.  This  was  refused  him,  and  as 
an  alternative  he  sought  it  from  the  Non-juror  bishops  of 
Scotland,  who  were  without  standing  and  functions  in 
England.  Seabury  received  no  official  recognition  there; 
and  even  here  at  home  many  Episcopal  ministers  and  lay 
men  hesitated  to  regard  him  as  having  the  full  Apostolic 
grace.1  Three  other  ministers  were  afterward  sent  for 
consecration,  which  by  negotiation,  and  the  assent  of  Par- 

1  Seabury  brought  from  England  a  "mitre,"  which  is  preserved  under  glass 
in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Hartford.  His  return,  with  his  dubious 
dignity,  met  with  various  greetings,  from  respectful  courtesy  to  raillery  and 
satire.  He  gathered  under  him  fourteen  "  inferior  clergy,"  resident  mission 
aries  then  dropped  from  the  pay  of  the  Society.  Though  the  State  was 
plentifully  strewn  with  religious  societies  and  ministers  not  needing  his  super 
vision,  he  signed  himself  "Bishop  of  Connecticut."  He  so  magnified  his 
office  that  some  of  the  people  congratulated  themselves  that  they  had  not  had 
among  them  before  the  War  a  real  "  Lord  Bishop." 


124  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

liament,  was  granted  to  them  ;  a  proviso,  however,  denied 
them  any  ecclesiastical  standing  in  the  realm.  Thus  by 
the  regular  methods  of  Episcopacy  our  country  is  well 
provided  with  its  clergy,  who  are  doing  faithful  and  de 
voted  service  in  its  cause.  So  has  the  old  breach  with  its 
animosities  and  its  bitterness  been  healed. 


IV. 

THE   PURITANS   AND    THE    BIBLE. 

THERE  are  cogent  reasons  for  bringing  into  an  emphatic 
relation  of  connection  and  union  the  Puritans  and  the 
Bible  ;  for  that  Book  was  to  the  Puritans  what  it  had 
never  been  before  to  any  class  or  communion  of  Christians, 
and  what  it  has  not  been  since  the  close  of  the  Puritan 
age,  even  to  those  who  in  lineage  and  creed  may  be  re 
garded  as  nearest  in  kin  and  sympathy  with  them.  The 
leading  aim  and  purpose  which  the  writer  of  these  pages 
lias  in  view,  and  which  have  prompted  the  positive  and  un' 
qualified  statement  just  made,  are  to  refer,  to  trace,  and 
explain  the  spirit  which  moved  the  Puritan  founders  of 
Massachusetts,  in  their  principles  and  legislation,  to  their 
own  peculiar  estimate  of  and  way  of  using  the  Bible. 
Strong  and  resolute  as  were  their  own  wills  as  men,  shar 
ing  as  they  did  all  the  passions,  weaknesses,  and  .limitations 
of  human  nature,  they  were  held  under  the  mastery  of  a 
religious  belief,  in  stern  loyalty  to  which  they  subjected 
themselves  and  attempted  to  subject  others.  All  the  noble 
qualities  of  the  Puritans  credited  to  them  by  candid 
judges  least  in  sympathy  with  them,  —  their  love  of  liberty, 
their  fidelity  to  conscience,  their  stern  and  heroic  constancy 
in  self-sacrifice,  the  penetrating  intelligence  and  good  judg 
ment  shown  in  the  institutions  which  they  devised  and 
fostered,  and  their  generous  thoughtfulness  for  the  welfare 
of  their  posterity,  —  all  found  inspiration  and  guidance  in 
their  way  of  regarding  and  their  way  of  using  the  Bible. 


126  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

And  to  the  same  type  or  form  of  belief  we  are  to  refer  all 
the  qualities  of  Massachusetts  Puritanism  which  are  un 
lovely,  it  may  be  even  hateful,  to  us,  the  occasion  of  gibes 
and  satires,  of  contempt  and  invective,  even  from  those 
who  have  entered  into  the  heritage  of  Puritanism.  From 
the  same  fountain  flowed  waters  both  sweet  and  bitter. 
The  bigotry,  the  austerity,  the  harsh  and  cruel  rule  of  the 
Puritans  may  be  directly  traced  to  the  creed  which  they 
firmly  believed  to  be  taught  them  by  God  in  the  Scriptures. 
The  Puritan  estimate  and  use  of  the  Bible  will  further 
engage  a  somewhat  detailed  exposition  when,  in  the  follow 
ing  pages,  we  examine  the  scheme  and  method  of  their 
Biblical  commonwealth.  We  may  here  anticipate  what  is 
to  be  more  definitely  studied  there  by  some  general  remarks 
illustrating  the  opening  sentence  of  this  division  of  our 
subject. 

There  is  no  lack  of  grave  themes,  in  open  debate,  on 
which  the  minds  alike  of  the  common  mass  of  men  and  of 
those  of  the  best  training  and  enlightenment  are  divided 
by  the  extremes  of  opinion  and  belief.  But  of  such  sub 
jects  that  of  the  most  transcendent  and  momentous  interest 
presents  itself  to  us  under  terms  which  may  be  thus  stated. 
With  the  bold  freedom  of  the  speculative  and  scientific 
processes  of  our  own  times,  the  profound  and  all-compre 
hensive  question  which  engages  our  philosophy  is  this: 
Whether  the  force  which  works  through  the  Kosmos  in 
physical  law  can  rightly  be  conceived  of  as  directed  by  a 
Person,  a  self-existent  individual  Being,  a  God  manifested 
in  Nature,  providence,  and  experience  ?  While  that  ques 
tion  is  debated  on  the  high  fields  of  philosophy,  leaving  in 
suspense  all  the  pregnant  alternatives  which  wait  on  its 
decision,  another  fact,  of  equal  significance,  is  this  :  that 
millions  of  our  race  have  for  many  generations  been  read 
ing  reverently  and  with  confident  assurance,  in  their  various 
languages,  a  Book  called  "  the  Word  of  God."  Leaping 
over  all  the  guesses,  baitings,  and  doubts  which  result  in 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  127 

belief  or  denial  to  others,  these  millions  of  believers, 
through  tradition,  education,  or  individual  conviction^  rest 
in  the  assurance  that  in  and  by  that  Book  they  are  in  con 
verse  with  God,  who  through  it  discloses  to  them  his  mind 
and  will,  his  method  of  government,  his  decrees  and  pur 
poses.  As  such  a  Book,  the  Bible  was  to  the  Puritans,  in 
superlative  regard,  what  it  had  not  been  to  any  generation 
or  fellowship  of  Christians  before  them,  and  what  in  un 
impaired,  unreduced  estimate  it  is  not  to  any  such  fellow 
ship  now. 

The  great  exigency  of  the  Reformation  substituted  the 
Bible  for  the  Church,  for  all  the  needs  and  uses  of  religion, 
as  a  rule  of  faith,  for  authority  in  the  direction  of  con 
science,  in  spiritual  discipline,  in  the  guidance  of  conduct, 
and  through  the  whole  course  and  experience  of  life.  This 
substitution  of  the  Bible  for  the  Church  was  followed  by 
the  most  serious  and  momentous  consequences,  of  which 
even  the  most  sagacious  and  prescient-minded  men  had  at 
the  time  but  vague  apprehension  and  appreciation.  The 
Church  —  and  in  what  is  now  to  be  affirmed  of  it  the 
Church  signified  the  priesthood  —  stood  for  a  supernatural 
society  or  ordering  set  up  in  this  world,  with  divine  au 
thority  and  direction  over  the  whole  Christian  fold.  Its 
claim  and  functions,  indeed,  were  asserted  only  for  spirit 
ual  matters  ;  but  it  reserved  to  itself  the  prerogative  of 
defining  the  bounds  between  the  sacred  and  the  secular, 
and  its  sternest  rule  was  often  within  the  range  of  the 
latter.  The  source  of  its  authority  being  divine,  that  au 
thority  was  in  its  exercise  absolute.  It  was  not  to  be  qual 
ified  or  questioned  at  any  point  in  which  it  might  assert 
itself.  The  line  between  the  priesthood  and  the  laity  was  ^, 
sharply  drawn,  and  was  complete  and  deep.  Qualified 
theologians  and  ecclesiastics  might  discuss  and  pronounce 
upon  matters  of  faith,  but  Daymen  had  no  privilege  or  share 
in  such  matters.  They  were  to  hear  and  obey. 

The  use  of  the  Bible,  which  came  in  with  the  Reforma- 


128  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

tion,  broke  the  sway  of  the  priesthood,  and  created  what 
have  since  been  called  laymen  for  full  recognition  in  the 
Christian  Church.  Through  the  whole  dominancy  of  the 
Roman  or  Papal  system  it  is  but  half  the  truth  to  say  that 
the  Bible  held  but  a  subordinate  or  secondary  place  in  the 
regard  and  service  of  Christians.  The  existence  of  such  a 
Book  was  absolutely  unknown  to  the  vast  majority  in  suc 
ceeding  generations,  and  only  a  very  slender  minority  of 
those  who  knew  of  it,  wholly  among  the  clerical  order,  put 
it  to  any  use.  Even  the  monk  Luther  came  to  the  knowl 
edge  of  it  by  accident,  when  dusting  a  library.  When  the 
authority  of  the  Church  for  faith  and  discipline  was  re 
nounced,  the  Book  became  the  alternative.  Never  again 
will  the  civilized  world  be  witness  to  such  an  outburst  of 
fervor  and  enthusiasm  in  all  classes  of  society  as  accom 
panied  the  free  circulation  of  the  Bible.  The  peasant  and 
the  artisan  took  it  in  hand  as  if  it  were  a  direct  gift  to 
them  from  the  archives  of  the  skies.  The  Book  at  once 
rose  to  its  august  supremacy,  not,  as  now  so  generally  re 
garded,  as  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  the  world's  sacred 
literature,  but  as  an  inspired,  infallible,  and  complete  dis 
closure  to  men  of  the  mind  and  will  of  God.  Its  letter, 
rather  than  what  we  call  its  spirit,  had  supreme  regard. 
We  shall  have  abundant  occasion  to  notice  how  the  bond 
age  to  the  letter  of  the  single  "texts,"  into  which  it  was 
divided,  clouded  the  minds  of  its  most  devout  readers  from 
the  illumination  of  its  divinest  truths.  The  Westminster 
Confession  teaches  that  "the  Holy  Scriptures  are  to  be 
read  with  a  high  and  reverend  esteem  of  them :  with  a  firm 
persuasion  that  they  are  the  very  Word  of  God,  and  that 
he  only  can  enable  us  to  understand  them."  What  were 
traditions,  church  councils,  priestly  teachings,  in  compari 
son  with  the  direct,  the  original,  the  sole  vehicle  of  com 
munication  between  God  and  men  !  To  the  supreme 
estimate  and  the  free  use  of  that  Book  we  are  to  trace 
the  source  of  democracy  in  Church  and  State ;  for  the 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  129 

Bible,  the  greatest  treasure  which  the  world  held,  recog 
nized  no  prerogative  of  rank  or  privilege  in  its  use,  save 
that  it  was  to  'open  itself  most  fully  to  the  simple  and 
humble.  The  learned,  of  course,  soon  discovered  that  they 
had  an  advantage  over  the  illiterate  in  dealing  with  the 
Bible.  But  they  were  restricted  in  the  use  of  this  advan 
tage  by  two  limitations :  first,  the  accepted  belief  that 
only  God's  illuminating  Spirit,  not  human  learning,  could 
"  open  the  Word  "  to  the  reader ;  and  second,  that  any 
thing  like  skill,  ingenuity,  or  elaborateness  in  explanation 
would  impai indirectness  and  simplicity. 

Let  us,  by  anticipation,  here  recognize  some  of  the  graver 
consequences  which  followed  this  substitution  of  the  Bible 
for  the  Church,  as  if  it  were  suited  to  serve  all  the  uses  of 
authority  and  guidance  heretofore  recognized  as  the  func 
tions  of  the  priesthood.  The-fir.afc  of  these  consequences  was 
the  assigning  to  the  Bible  a  character,  qualities,  and  author 
ity,  and  a  fitness  for  the  uses  made  of  it,  which  it  does  not 
claim  for  itself,  which  are  brought  under  searching  ques 
tion  when  the  Book  is  candidly  and  intelligently  examined, 
and  which  have  been  discredited  in  part  by  positive  knowl 
edge  obtained  from  other  sources,  and  in  part  by  the  judg 
ment  of  those  best  qualified  to  utter  well-grounded  opinions. 
There  was  assumed  for  the  Book  unity,  homogeneity,  and 
ultimate  completeness  in  its  contents  ;ljut  on  the  face  of  it 
it  shows  itself  to  be  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  writings 
of  vast  diversity  of  tone,  teaching,  and  value,  by  standards 
of  truth  and  edification.  With  that  easy  credence  often 
extended  to  objects  and  events  invested  with  the  glamour 
of  the  distant  past  and  knit  with  fond  and  reverent  asso 
ciations  passing  down  through  generations,  it  came  to  be 
taught  and  believed  that  there  was  a  time  and  occasion 
when  certain  qualified  persons,  divinely  and  infallibly 
directed,  selected  out  of  all  the  world's  existing  litera 
ture  certain  so-called  "  canonical  writings,"  to  which  they 
assigned  a  divine  authorship  and  sanction,  inspired  and 


130  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

infallible  in  their  teachings,  designed  and  adapted  for  the 
use  to  be  made  of  them.  With  the  most  profound  sin 
cerity  and  with  the  most  devout  gratitude  was  the  Book 
taken  to  the  hearts  of  men  in  this  character.  It  could  not 
be  other  or  less  to  them  than  it  was  thus  believed  to  be,  if 
it  was  to  serve  as  a  substitute  to  them  for  all  that  the 
Church  had  been, — as  the  bridge  between  earth  and  heaven, 
the  mediation  between  men  and  God.  The  Bible  was  to  be 
the  guide-book  for  every  pilgrim  who  craved  other  guidance 
than  that  of  cloud  and  star. 

Another  of  the  graver  consequences  of  the  substitution 
of  the  Bible  for  the  teaching  and  guiding  ChuTch  for 
all  the  needs  and  uses  of  faith  and  piety,  for  individuals, 
and  in  religious  institutions  and  fellowships,  was,  that 
thenceforth  all  unity  and  accord  in  belief  and  observance 
became  utterly  impossible.  If  the  Book  itself  were  infal 
lible,  there  was  no  longer  an  infallible  interpreter  of  it. 
The  right  of  private  judgment  was  claimed  for  each  indi 
vidual  reader  of  Scripture.  It  was  for  eacli  to  make  what 
Tie  could  of  it,  as  he  did  of  the  common  free  air  of  heaven. 
The  ultimate  issue,  however  denied  or  withstood,  has  been 
reached  and  stoutly  maintained,  never  to  be  yielded,  that 
no  individual  official,  or  institution,  or  representative  body 
on  the  earth,  is  now  interposed  between  God  and  man  in 
eternal  adjustments. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  tracing  the  nemesis,  or  retrib 
utive  penalties,  which  .have  been  visited  upon  Christen 
dom,  of  the  fond  belief  and  superstitious  notions  of  so 
many  forms  and  shades  associated  with  the  Bible,  because, 
by  constraint  of  circumstance  and  seeming  necessity,  it 
was  received  as  a  substitute  for  what  the  Church  had  been 
to  Christians.  They  had  been  trained  in  the  belief  that 
there  was  on  the  earth  an  authoritative  and  sufficient  me 
diation  for  them  in  all  that  constituted  religion.  The 
depository  of  that  authority  being  discredited  and  re 
nounced,  where  but  in  the  Bible  were  they  to  find  a  sub- 


THE    PURITANS    AND    THE   BIBLE.  131 

stitute  ?  Painful  and  disheartening  is  it,  to  all  who  are  not 
ruthlessly  indifferent  to  the  tender  affiliations  with  which 
even  fond  superstitions  connect  themselves  with  all  that  is 
sincere  and  sustaining  to  human  hearts  amid  the  mysteries 
and  burdens  of  life,  to  trace  the  long  process  of  the  assault 
and  the  defence  involved  in  the  conflict  between  the  tradi 
tional  view  of  the  Bible  and  the  discrediting  and  discomfit 
ure  of  it.  The  old  Church  has  been  justly  charged  with 
discouraging  and  visiting  with  its  penalties  the  utterance 
of  views  developed  by  intellectual  progress,  science,  and 
positive  knowledge,  in  opposition  to  its  teachings.  But  the 
maintenance  of  the  Puritan  estimate  of  the  Bible  has  re 
quired  the  same  treatment  of  those  whose  candid  inquiries, 
discriminating  study,  and  intelligent  criticism  have  ex 
posed  manifest  tokens  of  human  authorship,  with  conse 
quent  errors,  in  the  Book.  The  favorite  plea  of  the 
champions  of  the  traditional  view  of  the  Bible  is  that  the 
criticisms  and  objections  raised  against  it,  though  con 
stantly  re-urged,  have  been  over  and  over  again  met  and 
confuted.  This  is  not  true.  Dead  soldiers  do  not  re 
appear  on  the  battle-field.  Objections  so  often  parried 
retain  their  vitality  because  they  have  not  been  confuted. 

How  vain  is  the  attempt  to  give  any  intelligible  defini 
tion  of  Inspiration  as  applicable  to  the  whole  Bible  !  What 
ingenuities  and  sophistries,  what  playing  upon  the  credu 
lity  of  the  ignorant  and  confiding,  have  been  put  to  use  in 
meeting  the  honest  questionings  of  thoroughly  earnest 
inquirers  !  What  freak  of  fancy  in  all  the  workings  of 
human  brains  has  equalled  the  inventiveness  of  the  genius 
that  first  suggested  that  the  amatory  idyl  called  "  Solo 
mon's  Song  "  is  an  allegorical  illustration  of  the  love  be 
tween  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Church  ?  Large  portions  of 
the  Bible  had  no  more  need,  or  opportunity,  for  the  in 
tervention  of  "  inspiration,"  than  do  those  writings  which 
engage  the  pen  of  the  genealogist,  the  narrator,  or  the  com 
mon  clerk.  In  that  sublime  Scripture  bearing  the  name  of 


132  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

"  Job,"  the  ablest  discussion  of  the  "  Problem  of  Evil  "  to  be 
found  in  all  the  libraries  of  the  world,  his  three  "  miserable 
comforters "  offer  him  solutions  of  the  problem  which  he 
confutes.  .  How  does  the  quality  of  Inspiration  apply  there  ? 
We  might  ask  the  same  question  about  many  of  the  sen 
tences  in  the  book  called  "  Ecclesiastes,"  which  holds  the 
same  eminent  place  among  the  world's  unnumbered  essays 
on  the  Summum  Bonum,  or  the  "  Object  of  Living."  The 
book  of  "  Proverbs  "  is  a  gathering  up  of  all  the  floating 
sententious  wisdom  of  its  age  and  place.  Some  of  its  sen 
tences  have  a  glow  and  pitch  of  supermundane  wisdom  in 
them  ;  others  are  of  the  tone  and  earthliness  of  "  Poor 
Richard's  Almanac."  So  we  find  through  the  Book  utter 
ances  of  lofty  truth,  as  of  the  speech  of  angels,  alternating 
with  such  as  lack  the  discretion  and  decency  becoming  an 
ordinary  standard  of  moral  teaching.  And  what  is  to  be 
sai'd  of  the  discrepancies  and  the  acknowledged  errors  of 
statement  in  a  book  so  rashly  called  in  its  whole  contents 
the  "  Word  of  God  "  ?  Am}  when  that  Book,  set  before 
us  as  a  substitute  for  the  former  offices  and  functions  of 
a  Church,  and  left  to  be  interpreted  by  the  honest  purpose 
of  every  reader,  is  declared  plainly  to_jreveal  the  will  of 
God  and  the  way  of  salvation,  so  that  one  who  runs  may 
understand  it,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  enormous  and  un 
ceasing  toils  of  scholars,  critics,  commentators,  and  apol 
ogists  and  defenders  that  have  been  spent  upon  it  for 
centuries  to  make  it  intelligible,  acceptable,  edifying,  and 
credible  to  its  readers  ?  Why  in  all  Protestant  theological 
seminaries  should  there  be  needed  such  able  and  learned 
professors  of  dead  languages,  and  such  an  apparatus  of 
erudite  volumes  piled  in  mountain  heaps,  with  accessions 
made  to  them  every  year,  "  so  that  the  world  can  scarce 
contain  them  "  ?  The  time,  expense,  and  toil  that  have 
been  spent  by  scholars  and  theologians  in  elucidating  and 
defending  the  Bible,  if  directed  in  other  channels,  would 
long  since  have  expelled  illiteracy  and  ignorance  from  the 


THE   PURITANS   AND    THE   BIBLE.  133 

whole  of  Christendom.  And  all  this  in  the  service  of  the 
one  single  Book  asserted  to  be  inspired  and  supervised  by 
God  for  the  edification  and  salvation  of  the  simplest  in 
understanding ! 

How  blind  were  those  who,  in  their  straits  for  an 
authority  in  religion,  assigned  to  the  Bible  the  estimate 
and  use  which  it  had  for  the  Puritans,  to  the  results 
which  naturally  and  inevitably  were  to  follow,  when  its 
devout  and  earnest  readers  should  find  in  it  such  wholly 
inconsistent  and  contradictory  systems  and  tenets  for  be 
lief !  While  some  have  found  in  the  Book  a  God  who  is 
a  stern  and  dread  Sovereign,  bound  by  his  relentless  de 
crees,  others  are  there  won  to  love  an  indulgent  and 
all-merciful  Father.  The  hopeless  doom  of  the  vast  ma 
jority  of  human  beings  to  an  eternity  of  suffering  "  in  soul 
and  body "  is  the  doctrine  yielded  by  the  inspired  and 
infallible  Scriptures  to  one  class  of  believers,  —  to  another 
class  beams  forth  the  hope  of  salvation  and  bliss  for  every 
individual  of  the  race.  -The. jour) distinct  conflicts  in  mat 
ters  of  opinion  and  belief,  whose  course  we  are  to  follow 
in  these  pages,"  as  illustrating  the  intolerant  rule  of  the 
Puritans,  all  found  the  whole  material  of  variance  and 
strife  within  the  pages  of  the  Bible.  None  of  the  dispu 
tants —  save  to  some  extent  the  Quakers  —  went  outside 
of  that  Book  for  argument  or  belief,  and  all  of  them  heart 
ily  and  reverently  accepted  the  Puritan  estimate  and  use 
of  it. 

The  legacy  of  rightful  regard,  or  of  fond  superstition, 
which  the  Puritan  belief  of  the  Bible  has  left  to  us  has 
within  recent  years  had  a  striking  illustration.  Three  well- 
known  and  assured  facts  have  been  recognized  and  ad 
mitted  by  all  persons  intelligently  informed  on  the  subject : 

(1)  That  materials  exist  for  securing  a  better  and  more 
faithful  original  text  of  the  Scriptures  than  were  within  the 
reach  of  those  who  translated  the  accepted  English  version ; 

(2)  That  our  living  Biblical  scholars  are  fully  competent 


134  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

to  make  the  best  use  of  those  materials  ;  (3)  That  there 
are  acknowledged  faults  and  errors,  obscuring  and  miscon 
struing  the  sense  and  meaning  in  our  version.  Proceeding 
upon  these  three  undeniable  facts,  a  body  of  scholars  and 
best-qualified  men  in  England  and  America  were  announced 
as  set  upon  the  sacred  task  of  revision.  At  once  most  of 
the  "  religious  journals  "  sounded  an  "  alarm,"  such  as  might 
have  been  properly  felt  if  a  proposition  had  been  made  to 
invalidate  the  title-deeds  of  their  property.  The  intent 
was  that,  accepting  the  traditional  estimate  of  the  Bible  as 
God's  Book,  a  serious  and  faithful  effort  should  be  made 
to  clear  it  of  all  the  faults  and  imperfections  which  could 
be  detected  as  having  come  into  it  through  its  human  trans 
mission.  Of  course  any  changes,  even  only  of  words,  would 
grieve  the  sensibilities  and  tender  attachments  of  many  of 
the  living  generation.  It  was  supposed  that  these  would 
be  conciliated  by  the  supreme  purpose  had  in  view,  and  by 
the  thought  that  the  generations  to  follow  them  should  have 
a  Book  more  worthy  of  the  same  attachments.  The  years 
of  conscientious  and  generous  toil  came  to  a  close.  The 
results  were  given  to  English-speaking  Christendom.  The 
ungracious  reception  of  them  need  not  here  be  discussed. 
And  even  a  graver  theme  would  engage  us,  if  we  should 
candidly  recognize  what  is  now  freely  described  as  "  the 
scandal  of  the  clerical  profession ;  "  namely,  the  reticence, 
the  insincerity,  the  duplicity  even,  of  religious  teachers  who 
withhold  the  frank  avowal  of  their  own  qualified  opinions 
about  the  Bible,  and  leave  those  who  confide  in  their  teach 
ings  to  infer  that  their  traditional  beliefs  are  unshaken.  A 
considerate  allowance  may  suggest  a  partial  palliation  of 
this  compliance  of  religious  teachers,  in  the  extreme  em 
barrassment  they  would  find  in  reducing  or  qualifying, 
while  still  seeking  to  retain,  the  old  Puritan  estimate  of  the 
Bible  as  the  veritable  "  Word  of  God." 

The  statement  in  my  opening  sentences  affirmed  that  the 
estimate  and  use  of  the  Bible  made  by  the  Massachusetts 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  135 

Puritans,  as  original  in  all  the  special  and  peculiar  charac 
teristics  marking  the  Puritan  age,  were  confined  to  that 
age.  And  by  the  Puritan  age  I  mean  the  lifetime  of  the 
first  two  generations  here.  Those  who  come  closest  to  the 
lineage  and  creed  of  the  founders  of  New  England  do  not 
really  hold  their  estimate  and  make  their  use  of  the  Bible. 
I  know  very  well  what  strong  or  qualified  protests  may 
be  made  against  this  assertion ;  nor  do  I  propose  at  any 
length  to  defend  it.  Those  who  are  concerned  are  free 
to  challenge  it ;  ^but  their  chief  contest  must  be  with  the 
air  which  we  are  all  of  us  breathing.  We  may  search  our 
Puritan  literature  in  vain  for  an  apology  for  the  Bible, 
while  apology  and  defence  are  the  chief  services  to  it  in 
our  time.  If  one  would  attempt  by  a  single  word  to  de 
scribe  the  attitude  of  mind  and  thought  in  which  the 
multitude  of  people  of  the  average  intelligence  around  us 
stand  to  the  Bible,  we  might  say  that  it  is  "  a  bewildering 
book."  It  puzzles  and  confounds  them.  We  say  and  hear 
unchallenged,  that  the  Bible  is  the  best  and  most  precious 
of  books  which  the  world  contains,  and  that  in  it  "  holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit.''  But 
while  we  speak  or  assent  to  those  words  there  is  a  baffled 
question  in  our  minds,  Why  is  it  a  book,  one  book,  contain 
ing  writings  of  every  class  and  type  which  make  up  for 
us  in  these  days  the  whole  miscellany  of  literature  ?  And 
what  a  marvellous  variety  of  contents  and  subjects  does  it 
present  to  us,  —  ranging  over  the  whole  scale  between  the 
extremes  of  heavenly  purity,  sublimity  of  heavenly  coun 
sels  and  revealings,  and  the  grossest  disclosures  of  human 
foulness  and  frailty.  And  to  this  Book  was  assigned  the 
most  august  character  and  authorship.  It  was  dictated 
and  inspired  by  God,  who  informed  the  minds  and  guided 
the  pens  of  those  who  wrote  it.  Filled  with  oracles  and 
mysteries  which  our  brooding  thoughts  ache  in  the  effort 
to  fathom,  it  was  said  to  be  so  simple  in  its  illuminating 
power  that  the  sage  had  no  advantage  over  the  little  child 


136  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

in  the  entering  in  of  its  light  into  his  spirit.  So  keen  and 
searching  is  its  glance  into  the  inmost  being  of  man  that 
it  is  u  quick  and  powerful,  sharper  than  any  two-edged 
sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and 
spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  discerner  of 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart."  It  contains  a  whole 
armory  of  weapons  and  implements  for  offensive  and  de 
fensive  warfare  for  the  pilgrimage  through  human  life, — 
breastplate^  shield,  and  helmet  against  all  the  fiery  darts 
of  the  wicked,  a  girding  of  truth  about  the  loins,  and  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit. 

It  would  not  be  in  place  here  to  trace  by  contrast  with 
the  Puritan  view  and  use  of  the  Bible  the  estimate  of  it 
held  by  those  who  read  and  study  it  with  reverence  and 
gratitude  now,  and  try  to  deal  with  the  doubts  and  per 
plexities  which  it  opens  for  earnest  minds.  The  full,  con 
fiding,  unquestioning  faith  in  it  as  held  by  the  Puritans 
has  yielded  to  cautious  and  discriminating  rules  for  its  use. 
Strangely  inconsistent  with  the  character  for  simplicity, 
authority,  and  divinity  once  ascribed  to  it,  is  the  apparatus 
now  provided  for  scholars  and  humble  readers,  of  comment, 
explanation,  and  vindication. 

One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  use  of 
the  Bible  by  the  Puritans  was  their  rigid  literalism,  with 
such  slight  —  if,  indeed,  any  —  allowance  for  wTSaFwe  call 
figures  of  speech,  exaggerations,  or  orientalisms.  If  my 
memory  serves  me  for  the  occasion,  I  am  prompted  to  say 
that  it  is  only  or  chiefly  in  some  of  the  gushing  and  glowing 
pages  of  Roger  Williams  that  we  find  the  first  allowances 
in  all  our  early  Puritan  literature  for  the  poetic  personifi 
cations  and  rhetorical  wealth  of  the  language  of  the  Bible. 
Neither  can  I  recall  a  single  instance  in  which  preacher  or 
reader  in  our  Puritan  age  sought  relief  from  any  difficulty 
which  the  Scriptures  presented  to  him  in  suggesting  a  pos-; 
sible  mistranslation  of  the  original.  Wonderful,  indeed,  in! 
its  majesty,  wealth,  fulness,  and  variety  of  contents  is  that 


THE   PURITANS    AND   THE   BIBLE.  137 

volume  for  the  uses  made  of  it,  in  the  aptness  of  its  phrases 
and  "  texts  "  for  meeting  and  addressing  all  the  experiences 
and  solemnities  of  human  life.  And  will  it  not  be  a  yet 
more  wonderful  book  to  the  world  when  we  claim  for  men 
their  rightful  share  in  the  authorship  of  it  ?  While  the 
great  illuminating  Spirit  has  been  seeking  in  it  to  come 
into  communication  with  humanity,  men  have  responded 
by  trying  in  it  their  own  flights  and  soarings  above  the 
atmosphere  of  earth.  * 

The  fervent,  intense,  and  confiding  veneration  of  the 
Puritans  for  "  the  Word,"  in  the  authority  of  its  letter,  its 
divine  fulness  for  precedent,  usage,  and  guidance  in  all 
things,  was  accompanied  by  as  unswerving  an  allegiance  to 
a  creed,  believed  to  have  been  ably  and  faithfully  digested 
from  the  Scriptures, —  one  or  more  "texts"  from  which 
accompanied  and  enforced  each  doctrinal  statement.  This 
creed  was  the  substance  of  catechisms  for  children,  and 
nutriment  for  the  digesting  and  assimilating  spiritual  vigor 
of  strong  men.  Indeed,  the  most  forcible  illustration  we 
can  give  of  the  supreme  reverence  of  the  Puritans  for  the 
Scriptures  would  be  their  constant,  complete,  and  unswerv 
ing  loyalty  to  the  creed  which  they  believed  to  be  taught 
and  certified  by  those  Scriptures.  As  one  of  the  latest 
students  of  Puritan  history  has  written,"  a  living  coal  from 
the  altar  of  Calvin  touched  their  lips.  The  gloom  of  Cal- 
viuistic  theology,  the  atrocity  of  its  logical  conclusions, 
went  for  nothing  with  men  who  were  indifferent  to  abstract 
speculations."  l 

*  Those  among  us  of  Puritan  lineage  who  profess  still  to 
hold  and  stoutly  to  defend  the  old  creed,  at  least,  as  they 
phrase  it,  "  for  substance  of  doctrine,"  —  the  very  quality 
in  it  which  they  appear  to  others  not  to  accept,  —  are  gen 
erally  aggrieved  at  any  summary  statement  of  its  terms 
and  contents  made  by  one  who  rejects  it  and  condemns  it. 
They  charge  that  it  is  not  understood,  that  it  is  misrepre- 

1  Doyle,  The  English  in  America,  i.  132. 


138  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

sented  and  even  caricatured.  It  may  be  that  in  all  such 
cases  candor  should  make  allowance  for  the  fact  that  only 
a  firm  believer  in  any  tenet  apprehends  fairly  what  it  means 
to  him,  as  offered  to,  received,  and  interpreted  by  his  own 
mind ;  and  that  it  is  only  for  him  to  state  it  with  the  quali 
fications,  the  tonings  of  light  and  shade  which  it  has  as  he 
receives  it.  One  who  rejects  it  misapprehends  it.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  have  become  familiar  with  and  must 
reconcile  ourselves  to  the  claim  of  the  privilege  by  many 
around  us  to  believe  certain  formulas  and  tenets  which,  as 
stated  in  words,  mean  something  quite  different  to  them  and 
to  ourselves.  But  we  have  need  to  make  no  such  allow 
ance  for  the  Puritans'  constancy  to  the  Puritan  creed.  That 
creed  is  the  exponent  of  Puritanism.  Literalism  or  loose 
ness  in  adhesion  to  it  measured  the  glow  or  the  chill  of 
faith  for  them.  They  never  apologized  for  their  creed,  or 
mollified,  reduced,  or  toned  down  its  strong  affirmations. 
There  is  not  now  in  Christendom  a  religious  fellowship 
which,  assembling  its  divines  in  solemn  convention,  could 
or  would  digest  and  send  forth  the  Westminster  Confession. 
We  have  learned  to  make  allowances  for  the  different  de 
grees  of  reality  and  intensity  of  conviction  under  which 
belief  is  exercised.  There  is  hardly  a  single  religious  truth 
which  men  believe  as  they  do  the  truth  that  they  must  par 
take  of  food  in  order  that  they  may  keep  alive.  The  cen 
sorious  contrast  so  often  drawn  between  the  earnestness  of 
men  in  the  pursuit  of  secular  interests  and  their  lukewarm- 
ness  in  their  religious  interests,  recognizes  this  difference  in 
the  ways  of  believing.  And  here  again  we  have  to  admit  no 
qualification  for  the  fulness  and  intensity  of  the  faith  of  the 
Puritans  in  the  Bible  and  their  creed.  In  vain  shall  we 
look  in  the  records  of  what  they  sought  for  and  did,  for 
any  other  key  to  their  conduct  —  either  in  noble  earnest 
ness  and  constancy,  or  in  bigotry,  austerity,  and  severity  of 
rule  —  than  their  way  of  believing  and  finding  their  law 
in  the  Scriptures.  The  God  of  the  Old  Testament  rather 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  139 

than  of  the  New  was  the  object  of  their  supreme  dread  and 
reverence.  Their  faith  was  stern,  and  only  their  strong 
manhood  made  them  able  to  accept  it,  —  we  cannot  add 
the  words,  love  it.  And  this  God  presented  himself  to 
them  in  the  dreadncss  of  his  sovereignty  with  a  spell  that 
enthralled  them.  He  was  absolute  in  his  power,  decrees, 
and  purposes.  What  he  did  was  always  and  only  "  for 
his  own  glory."  Man  was  most  filial  and  most  obedient 
when  he  magnified  that  idea  of  God.  Do  what  God  might, 
it  was  enough  that  He  had  done  it.  It  was  in  the  con 
straint  and  completeness  of  an  all-absorbing  loyalty  to 
the  sovereign  will  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  that  we  cannot 
err  in  finding  the  main  reason  of  the  truth  —  so  justly  af 
firmed  —  that  loyalty  to  an  earthly,  anointed  king  stood 
for  so  little  with  the  Puritans  as  distinguished  from  others 
of  their  countrymen.  They  were  poor  courtiers.  They 
reserved  all  their  gravest  sentiments  for  the  august  Su 
preme.  Without  doubt  it  was  the  training  in  this  direction 
which  the  first  Puritan  generation  born  on  this  soil  re 
ceived  from  their  parents,  that  made  it  so  easy  for  those 
who  followed  them  to  dispense  with  a  king.  Indeed,  Puri 
tanism  involved  in  its  first  principles  a  latent  and  by  no 
means  unconscious  antipathy  to  kingly  rule.  The  Puritans 
read  in  "  the  Word "  that  God,  after  remonstrating  with 
the  Jews  for  their  demand  of  a  king,  in  yielding  to  their 
importunity  gave  them  reason  for  regretting  it.  They  so 
loved  to  associate  sovereignty  and  all  its  august  preroga 
tives  with  the  Supreme  Majesty  that  they  grudged  granting 
any  portion  of  it  to  men.  There  is  a  chasm  of  difference 
between  the  references  and  addresses  of  courtiers  and  of 
Puritans  to  king  and  to  God.  The  Puritans  were  equally 
reconciled  to  both  of  the  deprivations  expressed  in  the 
formula,  "  No  bishop,  no  king."  If  the  colonists  of  Mas 
sachusetts  had  been  Episcopalians,  under  the  royal  head 
of  the  English  Church,  there  might  have  been  no  Ameri 
can  Revolution.  I  have  not  found  in  the  records  of  the 


140  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Puritan  colony  a  single  spontaneous  prompting  of  "  loy 
alty,"  nor  an  expression  of  it  but  what  seems  constrained. 
It  is  true  that  the  monarchs  on  the  throne  of  England  in 
that  period  were  unworthy  of  personal  respect  or  homage, 
but  this  was  not  the  sole  nor  even  the  chief  reason  for  the 
weakness  of  the  spirit  of  allegiance  in  the  Puritan  for  the 
occupant  of  an  earthly  throne. 

We  cannot  strain  too  hard  the  assertion  that  the  sov 
ereignty  of  God  —  absolute,  unchallenged  in  will,  power, 
and  decree  —  was  the  root  tenet  of  religion  for  the  Puritans. 
Recognizing  that,  we  can  understand  how  they  not"  only 
became  reconciled  but  even  found  joy  and  comfort  in  as 
senting  to,  all  the  appalling  doctrines  of  their  creed  as 
deduced  from  and  consistent  with  it,  including  its  "  atro 
cious  logical  consequences."  If  in  spite  of  what  is  to  us 
the  irrational,  the  shuddering  substance  and  tone  of  that 
creed,  they  felt  under  a  constraining  obligation  to  believe 
it,  and  even  found  "  a  fearful  joy  "  in  accepting  it,  we  tjan 
well  understand  what  a  reflex  effect  it  would  have  on  the 
fibres  and  nerves  of  their  own  being.  Severity  of  bearing 
and  of  mien,  austerity  of  discipline,  and  an  awful  discharge 
of  their  magistracy  for  God  would  mark  their  features  and 
their  rule. 

We  must  have  before  us  the  leading  propositions  of  the 
creed,  as  they  concern  the  relations  of  human  beings  to 
the  Creator,  or,  as  we  should  express  it,  of  the  children 
of  God  to  their  Father,  as  follows  :  — 

"  After  God  had  created  all  other  creatures  He  created  man, 
male  and  female ;  formed  the  body  of  the  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground  and  the  woman  of  the  rib  of  the  man  ;  endued  them  with 
living,  reasonable,  and  immortal  souls,  and  made  them  after  His 
own  image  in  knowledge,  righteousness,  and  holiness  ;  having  the 
law  of  God  written  in  their  hearts,  and  power  to  fulfil  it. 

"  God,  placing  man  in  Paradise,  entered  into  a  covenant  of 
life  with  him  upon  condition  of  personal,  perfect,  and  perpetual 
obedience,  of  which  the  Tree  of  Life  was  a  pledge ;  and  forbid- 


THE   PURITANS   AND    THE   BIBLE.  141 

ding  to  eat  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  of  good  and  evil  upon  pain 
of  Death. 

"Our  first  parents  being  left  to  the  freedom  of  their  own  will, 
through  the  temptation  of  Satan  transgressed  the  commandment 
of  God  in  eating  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  thereby  fell  from  the 
state  of  innocency  wherein  they  were  created. 

"  The  covenant  being  made  with  Adam  as  a  publick  person, 
not  for  himself  only,  but  for  his  posterity,  all  mankind  descending 
from  him  by  ordinary  generation  sinned  in  him  and  fell  with  him 
in  that  first  transgression. 

"The  Fall  brought  mankind  into  an  estate  of  sin  and  misery. 

"  Sin  is  any  want  of  conformity  unto  or  transgression  of  any 
law  of  God  given  as  a  rule  to  the  reasonable  creature. 

"  The  sinfulness  of  that  state  whereinto  man  fell  consisteth  in 
the  guilt  of  Adam's  first  sin,  the  want  of  that  righteousness  where 
in  he  was  created,  and  the  corruption  of  his  nature  whereby  he  is 
utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite  unto  all  that  is 
spiritually  good  and  wholly  inclined  to  all  evil,  and  that  continu 
ally,  which  is  commonly  called  Original  Sin,  and  from  which  pro 
ceed  all  actual  transgressions. 

"Original  Sin  is  conveyed  from  our  first  parents  unto  their 
posterity  by  natural  generation,  so  as  all  that  proceed  from  them 
in  that  way  are  conceived  and  born  in  sin. 

"  The  Fall  brought  upon  mankind  the  loss  of  communion  with 
God,  his  displeasure  and  curse,  so  as  we  are  by  nature  children  of 
wrath,  bond-slaves  to  Satan,  and  justly  liable  to  all  punishments 
in  this  world  and  that  which  is  to  come. 

"  The  punishments  of  sin  in  the  world  to  come  are  everlast 
ing  separation  from  the  comfortable  presence  of  God,  and  most 
grievous  torments  in  soul  and  body  without  intermission  in  hell- 
fire  forever." 

The  formula  then  proceeds  to  state  that  mankind  being 
thus  wrecked  by  failure  under  a  first  covenant  of  works, 
God,  not  leaving  all  to  perish,  of  - 

"  His  mere  love  and  mercy  delivereth  His  Elect  out  of  it  by  the 
covenant  of  grace  made  with  Christ,  as  the  second  Adam,  and  in 
him  with  all  the  Elect  as  his  seed." 


142  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

The  three  Divine  Persons  in  the  Godhead  have  each  a 
part  in  this  covenant.  The  Son,  taking  flesh  upon  him,  is 
to  satisfy  the  broken  law  of  the  Father,  by  a  sacrificial 
offering  for  the  Elect,  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  sanctify 
so  that  they  may  avail  themselves  of  the  offering  made  in 
their  behalf. 

"They  who  having  never  heard  the  gospel  know  not  Jesus 
Christ  and  believe  not  in  him  cannot  be  saved,  be  they  never  so 
diligent  to  frame  their  lives  according  to  the  light  of  Nature  or 
the  law  of  that  religion  which  they  profess. 

"  Effectual  Calling  is  the  work  of  God's  almighty  power  and 
grace,  whereby  out  of  His  free  and  especial  love  to  His  Elect  and 
from  nothing  in  them  moving  Him  thereunto,  he  doth  in  His  ac 
cepted  time  invite  and  draw  them  to  Jesus  Christ  by  His  word 
arid  spirit. 

"  The  souls  of  the  wicked  are  at  death  cast  into  hell,  where  they 
remain  in  torments  and  utter  darkness,  and  their  bodies  kept  in 
their  graves  as  in  their  prisons,  till  the  resurrection  and  judgment 
of  the  Great  Day. 

"  At  the  Day  of  Judgment  the  wicked  shall  be  cast  into  hell  to 
be  punished  with  unspeakable  torments,  both  of  body  and  soul, 
with  the  Devil  and  his  angels  forever." 

The  Elect,  including  "  their  seed,"  baptized  and  dying  in 
infancy,  being  thus  saved,  — 

"  the  rest  of  mankind  God  was  pleased  —  according  to  the  un 
searchable  counsel  of  His  own  will  whereby  he  extendeth  or  with- 
holdeth  mercy  as  He  pleaseth  for  the  glory  of  His  sovereign  power 
over  His  creatures  —  to  pass  by  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonour 
and  wrath  for  their  sin,  to  the  praise  of  His  glorious  justice." 

That  last  reference  to  the  sovereign  will  and  glory  of 
God  stopped  the  mouth  of  the  true  Puritan  believer,  and 
answered  what  would  have  been  his  rebellious  questions 
before  he  could  ask  them. 

This  "  Confession  of  Faith  "  —  the  summary  of  the  Puri 
tan  belief  concerning  the  relations  between  God  and  the 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  143 

human  race  —  derived  its  thrall  of  power  over  them  from 
two  sources :  first,  from  the  supreme  sovereignty  assigned 
to  God  by  the  fearful  severity  and  the  grim  austerity  of  its 
tenets ;  and  second,  from  the  absolute  and  unshrinking 
loyalty  with  which  it  was  held.  The  framers  of  it  were 
content  simply  to  state  it,  without  analysis,  explanation,  or 
comment.  Argument  or  reasoning  in  its  advocacy  would 
have  been  to  them  an  impertinence  ;  apology  for  it  would 
have  been  cowardice.  Put  into  the  forms  of  our  common 
speech,  in  equivalent  terms,  the  creed  may  be  set  forth  as 
follows  :  — 

God  "  created  "  only  a  single  pair  of  human  beings.  All 
the  uncounted  millions  of  our  race,  following  on  through 
the  ages,  are  the  product  of  natural  generation  by  the  same 
sexual  method  that  propagates  animals,  birds,  fishes,  insects, 
reptiles,  and  plants.  All  these  human  generations  existed 
"  in  the  loins  of  Adam."  God  set  him  to  be  the  "  Federal 
Head  "  of  the  race,  as  its  first  representative,  charged  to 
act  for  his  race,  in  responsibility  and  destiny.  On  his  per 
sonal  obedience  or  conformity  to  the  divine  command  were 
staked  the  character  and  fortunes  for  this  earthly  life,  and 
for  an  endless  futurity  of  bliss  or  woe,  of  all  of  human  birth. 
By  disobedience  the  head  of  the  race  fell  from  innocence, 
and  lost  the  fruition  of  blessing,  bringing  a  curse  upon  the 
earth,  the  field  of  existence  for  his  offspring  blighted  as 
the  scene  of  sin  and  sorrow,  and  consigning  all  his  pos 
terity  to  guilt  and  condemnation.  They  are  born  with  a 
nature  utterly  disabled,  alienated  from  all  that  is  good, 
and  inclined  to  all  evil.  But  this  impaired  natural  ability 
carries  with  it  no  immunity,  no  privilege  of  reduced  re 
sponsibility,  as  the  divine  law  imposes  its  full  exaction. 

A  method  of  redemption  and  salvation  is  provided, 
which,  however,  is  in  fact  applicable  not  to  the  race  as  a 
whole,  but  to  individuals  called  the  "  Elect."  The  Divine 
man,  who  comes  to  the  earth  to  die  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin  in 
satisfaction  for  violated  law,  does  not,  by  redeeming  all, 


144  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

repair  the  whole  catastrophe  wrought  by  the  human  man. 
How  easily  Satan  made  the  conquest  of  this  once  fair 
world,  and  of  the  destiny  of  those  to  whom  was  given  its 
mastery !  In  view  of  the  tragic  failure  of  the  first  experi 
ment  of  humanity  in  its  opening  stage  on  this  earth,  we 
are  touched  by  the  fitness  of  the  pathetic  lament  which  we 
read  in  Genesis  vi.  6 :  "  And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  he 
had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his 
heart."  We  can  but  ask,  however,  whether  by  the  theory 
of  Inspiration  we  are  to  regard  that  sentence  as  an  avowal 
of  the  Divine  disappointment,  or  as  a  comment  of  the 
writer  of  it.  The  "  Elect,"  whom  alone  Christ  saves,  the 
formulas  of  the  creed  leave  us  to  conceive  of  as  thus  de 
fined  :  In  the  archives  of  heaven  there  are,  so  to  speak, 
record-books,  on  whose  folios  are  the  individual  names  in 
their  generations  of  all  who  are  to  live  and  die  on  this 
earth.  Of  these,  simply  according  to  God's  sovereign  will, 
some  are  selected,  with  no  reference  to  their  own  merits 
or  efforts,  to  be  the  subjects  of  his  saving  grace.  The 
rest,  whatever  be  their  proportion  of  the  whole,  are  —  mo 
mentous  words !  —  "  passed  by,"  left  as  reprobates  to  an 
awful  doom.  These  live  their  allotted  time  on  the  earth, 
whether  only  the  days  of  infancy  or  the  years  of  pro 
tracted  age,  and  then  at  death,  instead  of  being  allowed 
to  pass  into  nothingness,  are  kept  in  conscious  existence 
forever  to  suffer  the  torments  of  hell. 

It  was  never  claimed  that  this  creed  was  conformed  to 
natural  justice  or  to  enlightened  reason.  Nor  was  it  a 
*  valid  objection  to  it  that,  instead  of  being  so  conformed,  it 
outraged  both  justice  and  reason.  It  was  therefore  but 
futile  for  natural  justice  and  enlightened  reason  to  dispute 
the  creed.  This  was  accepted  submissively  and  loyally, 
solely  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  revealed  will  and 
decree  of  God.  Only  as  coming  from  that  Divine  Source 
would  it  have  been  admitted  as  authoritative.  And  here 
we  must  recognize  the  sturdiness  of  temper,  the  front  of 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  145 

courage,  the  heroism  of  spirit  manifested  by  the  Puritans 
in  their  attitude  of  docile  and  unquailing  belief.  And 
more  than  this ;  they  were  wont  to  glory  in  the  crushing 
down  of  all  their  natural  discomfiture  and  rebellings,  in 
that  the  creed  prostrated  "  the  pride  of  human  reason " 
and  humiliated  the  creature,  that  honor  and  majesty  might 
accrue  to  the  Creator.  Augustine's  willingness  to  believe 
a  thing  because  it  was  impossible  was  surpassed  by  the 
Puritan's  humbled,  but  not  bowed,  loyalty  to  his  creed. 

What  known  form  of  heathenism  presents  to  us  more 
shuddering,  hideous  conceptions  of  the  Divine  rule,  of  the 
relations  between  the  Father  of  men  and  his  children, 
than  the  Westminster  Confession  ?  The  curse  of  being 
born  by  the  will  of  man,  and  the  curse  of  dying  by  the 
decree  of  God,  are  equally  darkened  in  woe.  We  know 
what  penalties  and  agonies,  by  persecution  and  inquisitorial 
tortures,  men  have  inflicted  upon  their  fellows  in  the  service 
of  religion.  Might  they  not  plead  that  they  learned  their 
cruelty  from  God  ?  Would  those  who  held  so  cruel  a  creed 
shrink  from  any  act  of  cruelty  to  their  fellows  ?  An  Indian 
chief  at  Newport,  so  far  as  he  could  be  made  to  understand 
that  differences  of  religious  opinions  were  the  reasons  for 
the  gathering  in  his  fair  island  of  so  many  exiles  from 
Massachusetts,  exclaimed,  in  his  bewilderment,  J'  What  a 
God  have  the  English,  who  deal  so  with  one  another  about 
their  God  !  " 

Whether  it  be  offered  in  palliation  or  in  condemnation 
of  the  severities  of  the  Puritan  rule,  these  must  largely  be 
charged  upon  their  creed.  An  illustrative  example  may 
here  be  in  place,  allowing  perhaps  the  sternest  of  the 
Massachusetts  Puritans  to  speak  for  himself. 

The  materials  are  abundant  for  illustrating  the  harsh, 
vindictive,  and  cruel  spirit  quickened  and  intensified  in 
men  under  the  mastery  of  this  assurance  that  as  "  God's 
people "  they  could  interpret  calamities  to  others  as  his 
direct  personal  judgments.  Men  otherwise  of  gentle  spirit 

10 


146  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

in  social  and  domestic  relations,  and  of  loving  friendships, 
were  signally  enthralled  by  this  spirit.  Endicott's  letters  to 
Winthrop,  especially  when  he  was  ill  or  under  misfortune, 
are  yearningly  tender  in  their  affection  and  sentiment.  But 
let  us  see  how  he  could  write  to  his  revered  friend  about 
others,  not  "  godly,"  under  the  shock  of  a  dire  catastrophe. 
The  ship  "  Mary  Rose  "  "  was  blown  in  pieces  with  her  own 
powder,  being  21  barrels,"  in  the  harbor  of  Charlestown, 
July  27,  1640.  On  the  next  day  Endicott  writes  :  — 

DEAREST  SIR,  —  Hearing  of  the  remarkable  stroake  of  God's 
hand  upon  the  shippe  and  shippes  companie  of  Bristoll,  as  also  of 
some  Atheisticall  passages  and  hellish  profanations  of  the  Sab 
baths  and  deridings  of  the  people  and  wayes  of  God,  I  thought 
good  to  desire  a  word  or  two  of  you  of  the  trueth  of  what  you 
have  heard.  Such  an  extraordinary  judgement  would  be  searched 
into,  what  Gods  meaninge  is  in  it,  both  in  respect  of  those  whom 
it  concernes  more  especiallie  in  England,  as  also  in  regard  of  our 
selves.  God  will  be  honred  in  all  dealings.  We  have  heard  of 
several  ungodlie  carriadges  in  that  ship,  as,  first5,  in  their  way 
overbound  they  would  constantlie  jeere  at  the  holie  brethren  of 
New  England,  and  some  of  the  marriners  would  in  a  scoffe  ask 
when  they  should  come  to  the  holie  Land.  2,  After  they  lay  in 
the  harbor  Mr.  Norrice  sent  to  the  shippe  one  of  our  brethren 
upon  busines,  and  hee  heard  them  say,  This  is  one  of  the  holie 
brethren,  mockinglie  and  disdainefullie.  3.  That  when  some  have 
been  with  them  aboard  to  buy  necessaries,  the  shippe  men  would 
usuallie  say  to  some  of  them  that  they  could  not  want  anything, 
they  were  full  of  the  spiritt.  4.  That  the  last  Lord's  Day,  or  the 
Lord's  Day  before,  there  were  many  drinkings  aboard,  with  sing 
ings  and  musick  in  tymes  of  publique  exercise.  5.  That  the  last 
fast  the  master  or  captaine  of  the  shippe,  with  most  of  the  com 
panie,  would  not  go  to  the  meetinge,  but  read  the  booke  of  common 
prayer  so  often  over  that  some  of  the  company  said  that  he  had 
worne  that  threedbare,  with  many  such  passages.  Now  if  these 
or  the  like  be  true,  as  I  am  persuaded  some  of  them  are,  I  think 
the  trueth  heerof  would  be  made  knowen  by  some  faithfull  hand 
in  Bristoll  or  else  where,  for  it  is  a  very  remarkable  and  unusuall 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  147 

stroake.  Pardon,  I  pray  you,  my  boldness  heerein.  You  shall 
command  mee  in  any  service  I  can  doe.  I  write  the  rather  be 
cause  I  have  some  relation  that  way,  and  shall  therefore  be  glad 
to  be  throughlie  informed  of  theise  things.  This  bein  all  at  pres 
ent,  I  leave  you  with  the  Lord,  desiring  myne  and  my  wief's 
heartie  love  and  service  to  be  remembered  to  yourself  and  your 
dearest  yoakefellow,  and  rest 

Yours  ever  assured, 

Jo.  ENDECOTT. 

SALEM,  the  28th  of  the  5th  moneth,  1640. J 

One  may  well  marvel  how  the  gentle  and  tender-hearted 
Samuel  Sewall,  as  a  judge  of  the  victims  of  the  stark 
delusion  of  witchcraft,  could  sit  in  condemnation  of  Rev. 
George  Burrough,  his  contemporary  in  college,  and  the 
welcome  guest  of  his  home.  But  the  spirit  of  a  cruel  and 
relentless  creed  had  overmastered  the  amiability  of  its 
devout  disciple. 

In  justice  to  the  perspective  of  truth  we  should  here 
remind  ourselves  that  large  allowance  is  to  be  made  for 
the  general  inhumanities  and  the  judicial  severities  of  the 
Puritan  age  in  all  Christendom.  Capital  penalties,  with 
extreme  barbarities  in  inflicting  them,  were  very  numerous, 
and  for  trivial  offences.  Tortures,  mutilations  of  the  body, 
and  disease,  starvation,  and  death  in  loathsome  dungeons 
were  miseries  endured  by  many  of  the  selectest  spirits  of 
our  race.  It  cannot,  however,  be  doubted  that  some  of 
the  harshest  severities  of  the  Puritans  here  were  stimu 
lated,  and  in  belief  justified,  by  the  spell  wrought  upon 
their  spirits  by  their  intense  schooling  in  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures.  They  read  there  of  direful  deeds 
prompted,  directed,  and  rejoiced  over  by  God.  ^Starting 
with  the  axioni  that  the  heathen  were  to  be  exterminated, 
the  wars  of  the  Jews  were  favorite  reading  for  the  Puri 
tans.  The  vindictive  and  relentless  savagery  which  in- 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  141,  142. 


148  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

eluded  women  and  children  in  slaughter,  deeds  of  surprise 
and  treachery  referred  to  the  Divine  instigation  and  ap 
proval,  fixed  in  the  Puritan  mind,  as  firmly  as  it  was 
planted  in  the  convictions  of  the  Familiars  of  the  Inqui 
sition,  the_belief  that  the  body  should  suffer  any  stretch  of 
torture  in  the  interest  of  the  soul.  The  Book  of  "  Judges  " 
—  a  strange  title  for  the  military  desperadoes  who  figure 
in  it  —  was  favorite  reading  for  the  Puritans  ;  it  gives  in 
round  and  large  numbers  the  count  of  the  slaughtered. 

The  facts  that  we  have  among  us  now,  the  friends  and 
associates  of  our  daily  lives,  those  who  profess  reverently 
and  devoutly  the  old  standards  of  Puritan  piety,  that  great 
religious  fellowships  are  covenanted  by  them,  and  that 
theological  seminaries  are  pledged  to  indoctrinate  succes 
sive  classes  of  candidates  with  them,  to  be  prepared  for  the 
Christian  ministry  —  are  accepted  by  many  of  us  with  a 
mild  acquiescence  relieved  by  certain  misgivings  in  our 
minds.  We  ask,  Do  they  really  believe  so  ?  And  we  have 
a  way  of  answering  the  question  satisfactorily  to  ourselves. 
But  this  may  lead  to  the  further  question,  Did  the  Puri 
tans,  with  whom  we  are  dealing,  verily,  sincerely,  and  pro 
foundly  hold,  without  any  reduction  or  hesitancy  of  faith, 
the  tenets  of  their  creed  ?  The  answer  must  be  that  Jhcy 
did.  We  have  all  the  evidence  in  the  case  that  we  could 
desire.  We  must  remind  ourselves,  however,  laying  the 
greatest  stress  of  emphasis  upon  the  most  significant  fact, 
that  the  Puritan  creed  was  constructed  under  vastly  differ 
ent  views  and  beliefs  about  physical  nature,  human  nature, 
and  tliQ  .Plying  jnature,  from  those  which  now  giii3e  and 
express  the  convictions  and  thoughts  of  intelligent  persons. 
We  must  also  bear  in  mind  the  fact  already  stated,  that  it 
would  be  utterly  impossible  for  that  creed  to  be  formulated 
to-day  in  any  Christian  fellowship.  We  retain  in  use 
forms  of  speech  founded  on  the  Ptolemaic  theory  of  heaven 
and  earth,  but  we  do  not  believe  what  the  words  assert. 

As  to  the  firm  and  sincere  belief  of  the  Puritans  in  the 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  149 

very  letter  of  their  creed,  the  evidence,  as  I  have  said,  is 
ample  and  cogent.  I  have  tasked  my  memory  in  vain  in 
the  attempt  to  recall  from  all  the  pages  of  the  real  Puritan 
divinity  which  I  have  read,  a  single  deprecatory  or  apolo 
getic  utterance  indicating  mental  dissent  from  the  pro 
fessed  creed.  Calvin  did  indeed  pronounce  one  of  its 
tenets  —  that  of  the  damnation  of  unbaptized  infants  —  "a 
horrible  decree."  But  this  was  simply  the  avowal  of  a 
strain  upon  his  loyalty  in  bowing  to  it,  not  a  hesitancy  in 
accepting  it.  The  Puritan  creed  was  digested  and  for 
mulated  in  terms  as  rigid  and  exact  as  the  English  lan 
guage,  when  its  words  and  forms  of  speech  were  more 
•  direct  and  concise  than  they  are  now  in  the  expression 
of  abstract  statements,  would  allow.  It  was  not  intended 
that  there  should  be  any  elasticity  in  the  meaning  of  its 
words  or  in  its  propositions.  This  elasticity,  however,  has 
in  our  time  been  found  by  some  who,  while  avowing  an 
acceptance  of  the  creed,  do  not  believe  it  as  did  those  who 
worded  and  phrased  it.  The  Puritan  did  not  set  himself 
in  judgment  upon  the  creed.  He  opened  the  channel  for 
receiving  it  as  his  life's  food,  and  trusted  to  its  own  work 
ing  for  getting  digested  and  assimilated. 

The  "  burning  question  "  which  kindles  the  strife  about 
the  "  Progressive  Theology  "  of  our  day  —  as  to  any  hope 
for  those  who  have  died  in  heathenism  —  was  anticipated, 
with  but  one  answer  to  it,  among  our  Puritans.  The  noble, 
laborious,  and  patient  John  Eliot  says  that  some  of  his 
Indian  converts  "  had  a  gift  in  putting  diverse,  perplexing 
questions,"  as  he  tried  to  convey  to  them  the  tenets  of 
Calvinism.  Among  them  was  a  question  as  easy  for  him 
to  answer  as  it  was  for  them  to  ask,  —  "  Where  were  their 
ancestors  and  deceased  children  ? "  The  good  man  un 
flinchingly  wrote,  "  I  could  only  answer  that  the  promise 
was  only  for  believers  and  their  seed."  He  could  not  give 
them  even  the  comfort  of  offering  the  petition  which  had 
found  its  way  into  the  English  Prayer  Book,  "  Remember 


150  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

not,  Lord,  our  offences,  neither  the  offences  of  our  fore 
fathers."  The  creed  was  taught  in  the  earliest  years  of 
childhood,  before  any  receptive  or  interpretative  faculties 
could  connect  with  it  intelligent  ideas.  The  "  atrocious 
logical  deductions  "  from  the  creed  have  not  hindered  but 
that  men  of  consummate  intellectual  powers  have  toughened 
their  mental  sinews  in  grappling  with  it.  Jonathan  Ed 
wards,  intending  prose,  wrote  its  logic  into  poetry ;  and 
Michael  Wigglesworth,  intending  poetry  in  his  doggerel 
verses,  gives  us  a  prosaic  conclusion  in  assigning  to  non- 
elect  infants  "  the  easiest  room  in  hell." 

Another  reason  assuring  us  of  the  loyalty  of  the  Puri 
tans  to  their  Creed  is  found  in  the  suggestion  that  with  no 
less  of  appreciating  love  for  the  Scriptures,  though  with 
less  of  indiscriminate  bondage  to  the  letter,  they,  as  some 
of  their  descendants  have  done,  might  have  found  in  the 
Bible  the  materials  of  quite  a  different  creed.  To  many  of 
their  lineage  in  blood  and  faith,  to  whom  the  Bible,  instead 
of  being  the  absolute  and  final  authority,  is  the  most  pre 
cious  of  all  helps  in  religion,  it  opens  by  a  more  intelligent 
and  discriminating  use  the  most  illuminating  and  quicken 
ing  truths  for  the  guidance  and  sanctification  of  life.  And 
their  reverence  and  love  for  it  still  exalt  it  above  all  other 
books.  But  to  say  simply  that  the  Puritan  believed  that 
the  Bible  yielded  to  him  the  creed  which  he  found  in  it 
would  be  but  a  tame  form  in  which  to  express  his  devout 
trust  in  it,  his  entire  submission  to  its  doctrines.  A  mat 
ter  of  prime  importance  presents  itself  for  our  considera 
tion  here.  When  a  creed  or  formula  of  doctrines  has 
passed  by  tradition  and  the  succession  of  church-fellow 
ships,  as  an  inheritance  of  several  generations,  while  words, 
phrases,  and  forms  of  speech,  with  the  ideas  and  sentiments 
intended  to  be  expressed  by  them,  are  found  to  have  a 
range  of  meanings  in  the  changes  of  their  significance,  there 
may  be  fair  occasion  to  concede,  as  we  have  abundant  evi 
dence  in  these  our  own  days,  that  the  creed  may  not  signify 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  151 

to  their  successors  precisely  what  it  did  to  the  Puritans.  It 
may  then  be  a  delicate  matter  to  put  to  a  test  the  sincerity 
of  those  who  profess  still  to  believe  it.  But  we  have  to 
remind  ourselves  that  the  Puritans  constructed  that  creed 
freely  and  deliberately,  materials  and  opportunity  being  in 
their  hands,  and  leaving  them  at  full  liberty  to  formulate 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the 
Bible.  What  they  found  there  they  set  forth  in  literal 
terms  and  propositions.  Of  course,  then,  their  assent,  their 
hearty  and  full  belief  were  spontaneous  and  thoroughly 
sincere.  The  substance  and  spirit  of  the  doctrines  which 
they  thus  received,  arid  which  to  those  who  repudiate  or 
would  modify  the  creed  are  so  hateful  and  incredible,  were 
the  very  qualities  which  won  to  it  their  reverent  belief. 
In  the  continuous  discussions  and  controversies  which  that 
creed  has  opened  among  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans, 
those  who  have  rejected  it  have  been  charged  with  doing 
so  by  the  "  conceit  of  human  reason,"  and  because  of  "  its 
humbling  of  human  pride."  The  Puritans,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  loved  to  glory  in  their  creed,  because  of 
those  very  offences  in  it.  A  portion  of  their  descendants 
have  frankly  and  deliberately  renounced  the  creed,  either 
as  unscriptural  or  irrational,  or  both.  Another  portion, 
professing  to  adhere  to  it,  allow  themselves  liberty  to  re 
construct  it,  as  they  say,  by  Scripture. 

The  full  and  intense  sincerity  of  the  Puritans  in  the 
belief  of  their  creed  is  put  beyond  all  question,  and  at 
the  same  time  is  most  strikingly  and  instructively  illus 
trated  to  us  in  a  characteristic  class  of  writings  peculiarly 
Puritanic.  One  of  the  richest  departments  of  our  marvel 
lously  varied  English  literature  is  composed  of  diaries  and 
journals.  To  them  we  are  indebted  for  our  most  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  characters  of  the  writers  and  of  some 
of  their  contemporaries,  of  the  workings  of  human  nature 
in  individuals,  of  the  secrecies  and  intrigues  of  domestic, 
social,  and  political  life,  and  for  the  means  of  verifying  and 


152  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

reconstructing  the  past  for  comparison  in  an  infinite  num 
ber  of  details  with  the  present.  One  special  and  distinct 
class  of  these  diaries,  though  not  strictly  confined  to  the 
Puritans,  was,  in  its  most  characteristic  features,  purpose, 
method,  and  contents,  peculiar  to  them.  It  was  the  class 
of  religious  diaries.  But  they  are  to  be  defined  more  defi 
nitely  than  by  that  general  epithet.  The  true  Puritan 
believed  that  he  had  entered  individually  into  "  a  covenant 
with  God,"  the  terms  of  which  for  both  parties  were  dis 
tinctly  known,  understood,  and  solemnly  binding  on  each 
of  them"" respectively.  From  time  to  time  this  covenant 
was  "  renewed,"  on  occasions  of  mental  conflict,  or  under 
the  chills  and  fervors  of  pious  self-consecration.  Augustine 
was  the  first  of  these  Puritan  diarists.  If  the  expression 
may  be  allowed,  as  conveying  the  literal  truth  in  so  many 
cases, the  Puritan  opened  "a  debt  and  credit  account"  with 
God.  He  had  come  under  covenant  by  faith  and  profes 
sion  and  self-consecration.  He  had  recognized  the  terms 
which  God  required  and  accepted  for  the  adoption  of  a 
child  of  his  grace  and  a  subject  of  his*  mercy  ;  and  these 
terms  he  had  owned  as  the  rule  of  a  devout  and  obedient 
life,  i  In  the  mean  while,  holding  himself  to  duty  in  fulfill 
ing  his  part  of  the  covenant,  he  frankly  and  boldly  required 
of  God  to  meet  the  terms  of  his  own  gracious  promise. 
Instances  many,  and  of  rich  psychological  interest,  might 
be  quoted  from  old  Puritan  diaries,  in  which  the  writers,  in 
their  own  privacy  with  God,  set  down  their  accounts,  and 
then  try  to  cast  the  balance.  Nor  are  there  lacking  cases 
in  which  the  writers,  under  gloom  or  despair,  while  en 
deavoring  to  deal  strictly  and  frankly  with  themselves, 
dare  to  confront  God  with  the  question  whether  he  has 
been  true  to  his  own  promise  of  grace  and  help.  The  his- 
tori<3S  of  Governor  Winthrop  and  Governor  Bradford,  though 
in  the  main  recording  public  matters  for  posterity,  contain 
many  revelations  of  private  religious  experience,  as  of  men 
under  covenant  with  God,  owning  a  standard  of  duty,  and 


THE   PURITANS    AND    THE    BIBLE.  153 

depending  upon  special  Divine  help.  The  diaries  of  In 
crease,  and  of  his  son,  Cotton,  Mather,  have  long  served 
the  historians,  but  have  heen  for  the  most  part  put  to  use 
—  whether  fairly  and  profitably,  or  otherwise  —  by  those 
who  have  tried  to  penetrate  the  secrets  and  infirmities  of 
Puritan  character  in  some  of  its  most  pronounced  individ 
ualities.  Both  of  those  diarists,  the  son  more  than  the 
father,  often  reveal  themselves  in  their  private  records,  as 
deliberately  and  with  every  effort  of  sincerity  casting  up 
their  accounts  of  debt  and  credit  with  God, —  with  grim 
intimations,  on  some  dark  occasions,  that  the  balance  is  on 
their  side,  that  God  had  failed  in 'some  reasonable  con 
dition  of  the  covenant.  Cotton  Mather's  all  too-communi 
cative  pen  reveals  him  to  us  on  his  solemn  days  of  fasting, 
self-reckoning,  and  intimate  converse  with  God,  as  rolling 
and  writhing  on  the  floor  of  his  locked  and  darkened 
library,  moaning  and  weeping,  pressing  upon  his  present 
but  unseen  Companion  his  plans  and  labors  of  consecrated 
works,  so  ill-rewarded  and  appreciated  that  he  himself  was 
made  the  sport  of  detraction  and  contumely.  The  dismal 
impression  made  upon  the  reader  of  the  record  is  that  the 
human  and  the  Divine  parties  in  that  interview  are  mutually 
teasing  and  fretting  each  other.  There  is  one  brief  entry 
on  that  private  record  which  draws  to  the  sufferer  the 
human  heart's  full  sympathy.  He  had  given  the  name  of 
his  honored  father,  the  president  of  the  college,  to  a  son 
who  grew  to  be  wholly  worthless  and  depraved,  a  disgrace 
and  a  poignant  grief.  When  tidings  came  of  the  death  of 
the  outcast  in  a  foreign  land,  the  father  writes  in  the 
record  :  "  Increase  !  my  Son,  my  Son  !  "  1 

Governor  Winthrop  does  not  appear  to  have  kept  one  of 
these  private  religious  diaries  recording  his  personal  inner 
experience.  His  refined  delicacy  of  nature  may  have 

1  Only  extracts  of  portions  of  the  diaries  of  the  two  Mathers  have  been  put 
into  print.  The  originals,  in  manuscript,  are  preserved  in  the  cabinets  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society  and  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 


154  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

shrunk  from  the  work.  His  expressions  of  individual 
piety,  so  simple  and  earnest,  in  his  letters  to  his  family, 
disclose  the  depth  and  fervor,  the  profound  sincerity,  the 
purity,  and  the  tender  affectionateness  of  his  heart,  free 
alike  from  despondency  and  elation  of  spirit.  One  can 
easily  trace  his  own  confidence  in  the  obligations  of  "  a 
covenant-keeping  God  "  to  meet  the  trusting  expectations 
of  those  who  had  sought  to  bring  heart  and  life  into  con 
formity  with  his  will.1 

John  Cotton  had  before  his  death  enjoined  that  his  more 
private  papers,  especially  those  concerning  his  part  in  the 
Antinomian  controversy,  should  be  destroyed. 

The  very  communicative  and  instructive  journal  of  Judge 
Sewall  divides  its  contents  about  equally  between  public 
affairs  and  his  own  private  experiences.  His  pages  abun 
dantly  inform  us  how  precious  and  sufficient  the  Bible  was 
to  him  on  the  estimate  and  use  of  it  characteristic  of  the 
Puritans.  His  amiability  and  kindness  of  heart  were 
turned  to  sternness  only  when  "  the  Word "  was  slighted. 
He  also  boldly  held  God  to  conformity  with  covenanted 
obligations.  Most  touchingly  in  recording  his  trials  and 
wearily  taxed  patience  under  the  protracted  sufferings  of  a 
daughter,  does  he  add  —  and  by  no  means  as  a  common 
place  utterance  —  that,  after  having  called  in  the  ministers 
one  by  one,  he  leaves  the  case  with  God. 

These  Puritan  diaries,  these  reckonings  of  the  devout  in 
their  covenant  relations  with  God,  were  by  no  means  con 
fined  to  men  in  place  and  station.  We  have  remnants  and 
traces  of  them  from  many  of  both  sexes  in  private  rela 
tions.  Their  contents  and  spirit  reveal  to  us  the  tone 
and  method  of  Puritan  piety,  as  derived  wholly  from,  and 
in  strict  conformity  with,  the  Puritan  creed  in  all  the  sin 
cerity  and  intensity  of  belief  of  which  the  human  heart  is 
capable.  Sweet  and  gracious  often  are  the  religious  com- 
munings  of  some  of  the  finer  spirits  of  the  Puritan  matrons 

1  See  ante,  p.  56. 


THE   PURITANS    AND   THE   BIBLE.  155 

and  maids,  like  the  "  Meditations  "  and  revealings  of  Anne 
Bradstreet.  But  more  often  are  we  led  to  doubt  and  dis 
trust  these  intended  faithful  records  of  the  inner  life, 
reminders  of  solemn  obligation,  measurements  of  the 
heights  or  depths,  the  elated  or  morbid  exercises  of  the 
spirit,  and  challcngings  of  the  Divine  Comforter  for  a 
promised  help  or  assurance  or  peace. 

To  one  who  has  turned  the  leaves  and  paused  upon  the 
records  of  these  Puritan  diaries,  the  conviction  will  be 
irresistible  that  they  were  prompted  by  and  conformed  to 
an  implicit  and  full  belief  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Puritan 
Creed  concerning  the  relations  of  God  and  men.  Of  course 
these  private  reckonings  were  written  for  the  most  part  by 
those  who  were  both  under  individual  covenant  with  God, 
and  in  church  covenant  with  brethren  and  sisters.  The 
standard  of  obligation  and  fidelity  was  all  the  more  exact 
ing  to  the  thoroughly  sincere,  as,  while  left  to  apply  it  most 
searchingly  to  themselves,  they  were  held  to  critical  and 
inquisitorial  observation  by  others.  We  may  altogether 
exclude  from  notice  here  the  possible  temptations  of  insin 
cerity,  partiality,  and  hypocrisy  in  facing  self-revelations, 
in  favoring  one's  own  case  or  interest,  and  in  the  judgment 
of  other  persons  of  opposing  views  or  interests.  Hypocrisy, 
selfish  ends,  and  antagonisms  are  incalculable  elements  and 
forces  in  all  human  relations.  Our  concern  is  only  with 
those  who  in  their  religious  self-reckonings  knew  that  they 
were  under  the  gaze  of  an  All-seeing  and  an  All-discerning 
Eye.  Experience  and  the  judgments  of  the  discreet  in  such 
matters  have  for  the  main  decided  that  religious  diaries 
of  the  Puritan  kind  are  neither  wise  nor  healthful  exercises 
either  for  conscience,  cheerfulness  of  spirit,  or  charity  for 
others.  Meteorological  and  physiological  disturbances 
creep  into  them.  The  tone  of  the  nerves,  the  vapors  of 
ill-digestion,  the  depression  and  the  excitement  of  momen 
tary  feelings  and  scruples,  now  keen  and  then  relaxed,  will 
inevitably  obtrude  upon  the  calm  and  poise  of  the  spirit  of 


156  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

the  writer.  The  religious  diary  came  into  use  with  the 
Puritan  type  of  piety,  and  has  passed  away  with  it.  The 
changes  of  the  weather  and  temperature,  of  the  stocks  and 
the  markets  are  more  likely  now  to  fill  the  private  records 
of  our  more  practical  times. 

The  Bible,  the  Creed,  the  personal  Covenant  with  God, 
thus  present  themselves  before  us  as  the  elements  entering 
into  the  type  and  style  of  Puritan  piety  for  belief  and  life, 
—  a  Book  of  literal  inspiration  and  supreme  authority,  re 
ceived  as  from  the  hand  of  God  through  a  cloud  ;  a  Creed 
which  was  to  be  devoutly  and  implicitly  believed,  by  the 
subjecting  and  humiliating  of  the  protests  of  natural  jus 
tice  and  enlightened  reason ;  and  a  personal  Covenant 
with  God  in  terms  of  mutual  obligation  and  promise.  What 
outgrowth  and  form  of  character,  what  qualities  of  con 
science,  what  standard  of  recognized  duty  for  the  individual, 
and  what  conceptions  of  rightful  relations  to  others,  would 
be  the  effects  and  results  of  this  type  of  piety,  we  are  re 
lieved  from  the  necessity  of  defining  in  terms,  because  we 
are  to  have  before  us  practical  illustrations  of  it  in  the 
legislation  and  administration  of  organized  Puritanism. 

One  suggestion  may  be  made  here,  in  anticipation  of 
facts  to  be  more  fully  presented  in  dealing  with  the  contro 
versies  between  the  Antinomians  and  Quakers,  when  the 
Puritan  type  of  piety  was  brought  under  question  and  re 
proach.  It  was  rightly  charged  by  both  these  classes  of 
reputed  heretics  that  the  Puritan  rule  and  method  of  piety 
were,  in  the  dialect  of  the  time,  "  Legalism,"  a  revival 
under  the  Gospel  dispensation,  of  the  Jewish  "  law  of 
Works." 

The  absorbing  aim  of  the  Puritan  was  to  secure  for  him 
self  "  Sanctifi cation,"  by  obedience,  compliance,  and  faithful 
observance  of  all  the  means  and  helps  for  training  the  will, 
directing  the  conscience,  and  conforming  life  and  conduct 
to  certain  conditions  required  for  salvation.  This  object 
exacted  scrupulosity,  intense  watchfulness,  painful  anxiety, 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  157 

and  stern  self-reckoning  to  hold  the  believer  to  the  terms 
of  "  a  Covenant  of  Works."  The  Antinomian  and  the 
Quaker  had  found,  if  not  an  easier  and  laxer,  certainly  a 
happier  method,  through  "  Justification,"  the  attempt  to 
reach  an  internal  peaceful  assurance  of  the  Divine  favor 
by  a  "  Covenant  of  Grace  or  Faith."  Reference  to  this 
matter  of  deep  and  bitter  conflict  between  the  Puritans 
and  the  heretics,  is  made  here,  that  we  may  have  before 
us  a  contemporary  view  of  the  style  and  type  of  Puritan 
piety  as  it  was  regarded  by  those  who  believed  it  to  be 
formal,  mechanical,  and  superficial. 

It  is  in  place  here  to  intimate  the  tact  that,  while  the 
Puritans  made  an  estimate  and  use  of  the  Bible,  and  ac 
cepted  a  creed  peculiar  to  themselves  and  vitally  distinctive 
of  their  type  of  piety,  so  also  was  their  view  of  the  service 
of  prayer  almost  exclusively  their  own.  One  who  has  in 
formed  himself  upon  the  inner  exercises  of  the  individual, 
domestic,  social,  and  civil  life  of  a  Puritan  community,  and 
also  of  their  method  and  conduct  of  worship  in  their 
religious  assemblies,  will  be  at  no  loss  to  account  for  their 
disapprobation  and  disuse,  and  soon  their  dislike  and  even 
contempt,  of  all  set  forms  of  prayer,  and  especially  for  the 
liturgy  of  the  English  Church.  It  had  often  been  affirmed 
by  Church  writers  in  their  own  time,  as  it  is  to  this  day, 
that  the  apostles  and  first  Christian  disciples  used  a  ritual 
and  a  form  of  prayer,  "  Collects,"  etc.,  in  their  common 
worship.  The  Puritan  had  but  to  refer  to  every  place  in 
the  Gospels,  Acts,  and  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament 
where  reference  is  made  to  united  prayer,  to  assure  himself 
that  it  was  inconceivable  that  any  collects  or  set  forms 
could  have  served  on  such  occasions.  The  breathings  and 
petitions  of  devotion  there  referred  to  were  as  free  and  fer 
vent,  as  unstudied  and  spontaneous,  as  was  the  spirit 
which  prompted  them.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
the  Bible  they  found  no  single  recognition  of  a  form  for 
common  worship.  u  The  Lord's  Prayer,"  the  only  seeming 


158  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

exception,  was  to  them  a  guide  for  closet  devotion,  and 
the  trivial  and  mechanical  way  in  which  in  the  penances 
of  the  Roman  Church  it  had  been  employed  in  "  vain 
repetitions,"  to  be  recited  "  twenty,"  "  forty  "  times,  had 
wellnigh  alienated  them  from  more  than  reading  it  in  its 
place  in  the  Gospel. 

The  distinctive  peculiarity  of  the  service  of  prayer  in 
Puritan  devotion  was  characteristic  alike  of  what  many  of 
their  lineage  now  approve  and  honor,  and  of  what  they 
regret  and  reject  in  their  type  of  piety.  Their  ideas  about 
their  special  covenant  relations  with  God  gave  tone  and 
form  and  substance  and  method  to  their  prayers.  Using 
the  word  freely,  without  stopping  to  limit  or  qualify  it,  we 
might  say  that  dictation  to  the  Deity,  rather  than  petition 
or  submission  made  them  bold  in  prayer.  They  stated  and 
defined  in  special  terms,  on  occasion,  in  what  form,  direct  and 
full,  they  would  have  their  requests  granted.  The  pledges, 
the  promises,  the  assurances  which  they  believed  God  to 
have  ratified  when  they  had  put  themselves  in  filial  and 
sacramental  relations  with  him,  gave  them  claims  and  ex 
pectations  of  which  at  least  they  felt  at  liberty  to  remind 
God.  Doubtless,  the  length  of  the  Puritan  devotions,  as 
well  as  of  their  sermons,  has  been  exaggerated.  We  know, 
however,  that  those  most  concerned  as  hearers  did  not 
complain  of  weariness,  and  that  any  "  stinting  "  of  religious 
exercises  was  a  grievance  to  them.  The  distinctive  pecu 
liarities  in  the  Puritan  service  of  prayer  are  very  signifi 
cantly  recognized  when  we  trace  and  account  for  the 
changes  and  modifications  in  the  tone,  method,  and  usages 
of  the  public  devotions  in  the  worship  of  those  in  closest 
affinity  with  them  in  belief  and  observance  in  our  own 
times. 

It  is  within  the  recollection  of  some  now  living  here  that 
in  the  Sunday  worship  of  congregations  both  in  city  and 
country  towns,  "  Notes,  requesting  Prayers,"  in  the  name  of 
individuals  or  families  were  read  by  the  officiating  minister 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  159 

before  the  principal  devotional  service.  These  Notes  cov 
ered  a  large  variety  of  experiences,  —  voyages,  births,  sor 
rows,  afflictions,  and  bereavements.  I  recall  an  occasion 
in  a  country  meeting-house  when  sixteen  such  notes  were 
read, —  more  than  one  of  them,  perhaps,  offered  by  dif 
ferent  petitioners  in  different  relationships  referring  to  the 
same  case.  The  birth  of  a  child  in  a  household  prompted 
the  parents  — who  rose  in  their  pew  at  the  reading  of  it  — 
to  send  up  an  offering  of  "  thanks  for  mercies  received."  l 
In  the  early  New-England  churches  there  was  much  that 
was  befitting,  edifying,  and  even  beautiful,  in  thus  engaging 
the  devotions  of  a  whole  congregation  in  the  deeper  per 
sonal  experiences  and  circumstances  of  individuals  and 
families  among  them.  Though  there  was  a  recognized  dis 
tinction  of  degrees,  dignities,  and  of  social  standing,  —  far 
beyond  what  there  is  now,  —  even  in  rural  settlements, 
there  were  mutual  interests  which  brought  all  into  ac 
quaintance  and  sympathy.  Anything  unusual,  of  a  serious 
nature,  in  the  experience  of  one  was  known  to  and  ap 
pealed  to  all.  Neighborly  offices  and  ministries  were  lifted 
into  public  prayers.  It  was  instructive  to  observe  how, 
under  changing  circumstances  of  domestic  and  social  life, 
when  occupants  of  neighboring  pews  and  houses  might 
not  know  each  other  by  names,  the  original,  full-hearted 
wording  of  the  Notes  for  Prayers  yielded, — in  its  way  to 
an  entire  disuse,  —  first,  by  a  substitution  of  "  A  family 
in  this  congregation,"  etc.,  instead  of  the  name,  and  then 
by  silence  on  such  subjects. 

The  "  free  prayers  "  in  the  Puritan  assemblies  took  the 
widest  possible  range  of  tone,  substance,  detail,  and,  we 
must  add,  even  of  the  temper  of  the  spirit  that  breathed 
them.  Not  infrequently,  as  we  may  read  in  the  Journals 

1  The  Rev.  Dr.  Frothingham,  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston  from 
1815  to  1850,  told  me  that  after  he  had  read  many  such  "Notes"  for  his 
parishioners,   he,   in  his  own  case,  consigned  the  custom  to  desuetude  byj 
omitting  the  observance  on  the  birth  of  his  first  child. 


160  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

of  Winthrop  and  Sewall,  the  private  opinions,  partialities, 
and  grievances  of  a  minister  in  his  relations  with  others 
found  utterance.  On  the  occasions  of  the  animosities  and 
contentions  which  are  to  be  rehearsed  in  the  following 
pages,  the  public  devotional  exercises  were  made  the  me 
dium  of  excited  and  even  embittered  feelings.  No  dis 
tractions  or  provocations  of  this  nature  appeared  in  the 
usual  tone  and  method  of  the  Puritan  prayers,  which,  in 
the  best  sense  of  the  phrase,  became  "  Common  Prayers  " 
under  the  anxieties  and  straits  of  their  wilderness  begin 
nings, —  dreads  of  Indian  assaults,  of  foreign  interference, 
of  plagues,  of  murrain,  of  the  failure  of  crops,  of  storms 
and  earthquakes,  and  changes  in  the  government  at  home, 
—  which  caused  deep  anxieties.  Under  those  circumstances 
to  have  confined  the  devotional  services  of  the  Puritans  to 
the  forms,  collects,  and  ritualisms  of  a  parlor  or  a  boudoir 
ceremonial  would  have  deadened  rather  than  calmed  their 
spirits. 

Several  of  the  governors  of  Massachusetts  now  for  many 
years,  in  regularly  appointing  the  first  Thursday  of  April 
and  the  last  Thursday  of  November,  respectively,  as  days 
of  Fasting  and  Thanksgiving,  have  alleged  the  example  of 
the  Fathers  in  so  doing.  A  careful  examination  of  the 
Records  will  show  under  what  important  qualifications 
such  a  statement  must  be  made.  In  no  case  was  a  day 
for  either  observance  selected  as  a  matter  of  routine,  of 
course,  with  any  reference  to  the  season  or  calendar  of  the 
year.  The  occasions  were  indifferently  assigned  through 
all  seasons,  with  this  serious  condition,  —  that  a  defined 
and  emphatic  reason,  in  opportunity  or  emergency,  was 
given  in  each  case  in  setting  before  the  whole  people  of 
the  Colony  a  matter  which  would  be  sure  to  engage  their 
devotional  sentiments.  Without  such  a  specific  consecra 
tion,  an  official  Fast  Day  cannot  but  be  used  as  a  holiday. 
There  are  instances  on  the  Records  in  which  the  Court 
appointed  at  the  same  session  both  a  Fast  Day  and 


THE   PURITANS   AND    THE   BIBLE.  161 

a  Thanksgiving  Day  to  be  observed  at  a  few  days'  interval, 
—  the  reasons,  occasions,  and  material  for  each  being  very 
distinctly  and  cogently  assigned.1 

It  is  by  the  changes  of  time  and  circumstances,  rather 
than,  as  is  often  said,  by  changes  in  taste  and  regard  for 
the  fitness  of  things,  —  except  as  these  latter  modifications 
are  the  result  of  the  former,  —  that  the  peculiar  character 
istics  of  the  Puritan  methods  of  public  devotion  have  grad 
ually  yielded,  occasionally  giving  place  to  book-services. 
These,  in  their  turn,  have  to  be  allowed  some  elasticity  in 
missionary  wilderness  work,  and  on  emergent  occasions 
like  those  of  the  Puritans. 

The  subjects  of  the  Creed,  the  Covenant,  and  the  service 
of  Prayer,  as  deciding  the  tone  and  type  of  Puritan  piety, 
have  thus  presented  themselves  to  our  notice  in  connection 
with  their  peculiar  estimate  and  way  of  using  the  Bible. 
All  the  modifications  since  traceable  in  matters  of  belief, 
of  religious  fellowship,  and  forms  of  worship,  have  been 
incident  upon  a  changing  regard  for  and  a  different  esti 
mate  of  the  Book.  If  we  have  been  digressing  from  the 
main  theme  of  this  chapter  we  must  return  to  a  further 
reference  to  the  sacred  volume.  One  other,  and  it  may 
be  the  supreme  and  crowning,  reason  for  the  exalted  value 
which  the  Puritans  assigned  to  the  Bible  is  yet  to  be  men 
tioned.  They  held  the  Book  to  be  not  only  a  complete,  but 
also  the  final,  communication  of  God  to  men.  Their  belief 
is  thus  expressed  in  the  Confession,  of  which  we  must 
mark  the  emphasis  :  - 

"  The  whole  Council  of  God  concerning  all  things  necessary 
for  his  own  Glory,  Man's  Salvation,  Faith,  and  Life,  is  either 
expressly  set  down  in  Scripture,  or  by  good  and  necessary  Con 
sequence  may  be  deduced  from  Scripture.  Unto  which  nothing 
at  any  time  is  to  be  added,  whether  by  new  Revelations  of  the 
Spirit  or  Traditions  of  Men." 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  part  ii.  pp.  280,  320,  346,  534. 
11 


162  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

The  first  impression  made  upon  us  by  the  last  sentence 
is  that  of  its  presumption,  the  high  and  extreme  assurance 
in  its  statement.  It  was  well  enough  to  exclude  the  ex 
pectation  of  any  further  religious  help  from  the  traditions 
of  men ;  but  to  close  the  hope  of  any  further  communica 
tions  from  God  to  men,  to  put  him  to  silence,  seems  in 
congruous  with  living  faith,  and  certainly  with  anything 
consistent  with  humility  and  reverence  in  the  Puritans. 
If  it  is  to  be  pardoned,  it  is  solely  because  it  was  a  way 
of  exalting  the  treasure  in  their  possession.  It  seemed  to 
say  of  the  Bible,  as  we  say  of  a  critical  opportunity,  "  Prize 
it,  make  the  most  of  it,  for  you  will  never  have  another ! " 
The  Puritans  applied  to  the  whole  Book,  as  if  its  contents 
were  a  unit,  some  of  the  closing  sentences  of  the  Revela 
tion  of  Saint  John,  warning  against  taking  from  or  add 
ing  to  it.  We  can  well  understand  how  they  would  have 
grieved  over  a  loss  of  anything  in  the  Book,  though  we 
might  well  be  reconciled  to  parting  with  some  of  its  con 
tents.  But  would  they  not  have  welcomed  further  com 
munications  from  the  Spirit  ?  Two  objections  rise  in  our 
minds  to  their  mode  of  silencing  God.  First,  they  rejoiced 
in  believing  that  God  had  "  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners"  spoken  to  the  fathers.  To  assert  that  there  had 
been,  and  was  forever  to  be,  a  cessation  of  that  mode  of 
Divine  intercourse  was  to  prompt  a  spirit  of  scepticism 
and  doubt  —  so  effectively  exercised  in  our  time  —  as  to 
whether  God  had  ever  "  spoken,"  or  whether  imagination 
and  credulity  had  not  originated  the  belief.  Second,  con 
tinued  revealings  through  the  select  spirits  of  saintly  per 
sons  would  have  richly  authenticated  the  earlier  revelations, 
while  the  abrupt  closing  of  -the  mute  heavens  would  cover 
the  earth  with  gloom.  But  this  bold  and  positive  assertion 
of  the  Puritan  creed,  stated  as  an  article  of  faith,  to  exalt 
the  estimate  and  value  of  the  Bible,  leads  us  to  anticipate 
here  a  matter  which  we  shall  find  to  have  had  vast  influ 
ence  when,  further  on  in  these  pages,  we  have  to  deal  with 


THE  PURITANS   AND  THE  BIBLE.  163 

the  sad  altercations  and  controversies  of  the  authorities  of 
Massachusetts  with  the  Antinomians  and  the  Quakers. 

All  the  enthusiastic  sects  of  the  time  claimed  to  have 
direct,  private,  personal  illuminations  and  "  revelations  " 
independent  of  the  Bible.  The  stress  and  importance 
which  any  of  the  wild  sectaries  of  the  period  laid  upon 
these  divine  motions  and  promptings  marked  the  stage  and 
degree  of  the  fanaticism  attributed  to  them.  There  was  no 
standard  or  test  to  which  these  private  revelations  could 
be  brought  for  a  trial  of  their  sanity,  or  even  reasonable 
ness.  They  might  be  alleged  in  justification  of  any  form 
of  eccentricity,  fanaticism,  and  extravagance.  Notoriously 
they  were  enlisted  on  the  side  of  disorder,  violence,  inde 
cency,  and  gross  immorality.  When  a  delicate  and  vir 
tuous  matron  pleaded  that  she  was  compelled  to  divest 
herself  of  all  womanly  modesty  by  appearing  unclothed 
in  the  public  streets  and  in  the  public  assembly,  in  order 
that  she  might  comply  with  a  Divine  call  upon  her  to  do 
so,  however  clear  and  firm  might  be  her  own  conviction 
in  the  case,  the  act  itself  would  show  it  to  be  a  delusion. 
The  amazed  spectators  might  or  might  not  give  her  the 
benefit  of  a  charitable  construction,  —  that  she  was  "  dis 
tracted  in  her  wits."  It  was  enough,  however,  for  the 
Puritans  to  abide  by  their  accepted  rule,  that  there  were 
to  be  "  no  more  revelations  of  the  Spirit."  All  the  illumi 
nations  and  Divine  promptings  —  and  these  were  to  them 
precious  and  inspiring  —  which  they  or  others  could  enjoy 
must  come  through  and  from  the  Bible,  but  not  outside  or 
independent  of  the  Bible.  The  edict  which  they  announced 
in  their  Confession,  of  a  final  and  closed  communication 
from  God,  utterly  precluded  and  interdicted  all  private 
revelations.  We  shall  see  what  stress  was  laid  upon  this 
point  in  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  in  the  judicial 
proceedings  against  the  Quakers.  To  some  critical  readers 
of  our  time  the  question  may  present  itself  whether  the 
Puritans  in  this  matter  did  not  act  blindly  and  inconsist- 


164  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

ently.  They  read  in  the  sacred  volume  of  promptings  and 
motions  ascribed  to  God,  under  which  his  servants  and 
prophets  went  from  place  to  place,  delivered  messages, 
uttered  their  burdens  and  denunciations,  and  performed 
certain  symbolic  acts  with  garments,  girdles,  and  bottles.1 
These  narratives  the  Puritans  found  credible  and  edifying. 
The  Quakers  claimed  the  same  divine  promptings,  and 
uttered  similar  warnings,  with  similar  symbolic  acts.  The 
fatal  difference,  however,  was  that  after  the  Bible  was  com 
pleted  Divine  revelations  had  ceased. 

Most  faithfully,  with  unwearied,  patient  application  and 
constant  study,  —  with  the  aid  of  learning,  if  they  had  it, 
otherwise  with  a  simple  craving  for  light  and  truth  and 
guidance  in  the  religious  life,  —  did  the  Puritans  use  the 
Bible  to  serve  for  them  directly  in  place  of  priestly  teach 
ing  and  to  relieve  the  dumbness  and  silence  of  Nature. 
While  they  objected  to  the  routine  and  formal  way  in 
which  it  was  used  in  their  old  parish  churches,  their  direc 
tory  for  worship  provided  that  it  should  be  read  in  course, 
always  followed  by  exposition,  not  in  the  "  dumb  reading  " 
of  the  Church.  Though  but  few  of  the  first  comers  here 
could  have  had  the  Book  in  the  compact  and  convenient 
forms  familiar  to  us,  all  who  could  do  so,  dispensing  with 
a  prayer-book,  took  the  holy  volume  with  them  to  their 
public  worship,  and  diligently  turned  the  leaves  to  follow 
the  references  and  citations  made  by  the  minister.  It  can 
hardly  have  been  but  that  some  passages  must  have  been 
omitted  in  the  public  reading  as  unedifying  and  even  worse  ; 
but  not  so  in  the  private  home.  The  family  Bible  in  the 
Puritan  household  was  the  present  angel  of  the  dwelling, 
and  the  fire  never  went  out  on  the  altar.  Happy  were  the 
families,  especially  the  children  in  them,  whose  copies  were 
enriched  with  the  generously  furnished  and  often  beautiful 
engravings  of  the  olden  time.  Besides  the  daily  devotional 
services  in  each  well-ordered  home,  there  were  special  uses 

1  Isaiah  xx. 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   BIBLE.  165 

of  the  Bible  on  the  Sabbath  which  must  have  been  irksome 
and  weariful  to  youthful  flesh  and  spirits.  Both  the  ser 
mons  of  the  day  were  to  be  "  repeated"  and  commented 
on  with  further  explanations  and  applications.  Portions 
or  chapters  of  the  Bible  were  to  be  "  got  by  heart,"  as  aids 
to  the  catechism.  The  bright  child  in  the  home  who  had 
attained  to  skill  as  a  good  reader  had  the  privilege  of 
serving  as  such,  and  many  of  the  households  furnished  an 
imitative  boy  who  could  extemporize  a  sermon  and  occupy 
a  chair  as  a  pulpit.  Very  welcome  was  it  to  such  chil 
dren  when  in  the  course  of  the  annual  perusal  of  the  Bible 
there  came  in  turn  the  fascinating  stories  of  Joseph,  of 
Samson's  foxes,  of  David  and  Goliath,  and  like  narratives 
where  the  human  transcended  the  divine.  The  perennial 
toy  of  childhood  is  a  more  or  less  artistically  executed 
model  of  Noah's  ark.1  Many  and  richly  suggestive  have 
been  the  nursery  discussions  over  that  wonderful,  sailless, 
rudderless  vessel,  with  its  three  stories,  each  with  its  sealed 
door,  and,  heedless  of  ventilation,  a  window  at  the  top 
which  must  needs  have  remained  closed.  Besides  the  eight 
full-grown  persons  that  were  to  enter  it  for  refuge,  —  the 
patriarch,  Mrs.  Noah,  their  three  sons  and  their  wives,  — 
there  were  no  infants  or  children  to  engage  sympathy. 
Some  perplexity  attended  the  double  narration,  leaving  it 
uncertain  whether  there  were  only  a  single  or  seven  pairs 
of  all  the  creatures  to  be  preserved.  There  was  no  trouble 
about  the  larger  of  these  creatures  —  the  elephant,  camel, 
rhinoceros,  the  horse,  the  horned  cattle  — as  they  inarched 
with  sober  steps  into  the  ark  ;  but  where  were  two  mice 
and  two  mosquitoes,  with  like  small  beings,  stowed  away  ? 
And  when  the  lonely  dove  went  out  not  to  return,  what 
became  of  its  mate  ?  We  may  be  assured  that  many  ques 
tions  about  the  Bible  were  put  to  the  elders  in  these 

1  It  has  been  stated  in  public  prints  that  three  million  models  of  this  toy 
have  been  manufactured  by  a  single  firm  in  Germany. 


166  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

households  which  it  was  necessary  and  wise  to  leave  un 
answered. 

How  the  Bible,  or  "  the  Word,"  in  its  laws,  examples, 
"  instances,"  and  precedents  was  put  to  use  by  the  Puritans 
in  their  civil  and  religious  policy,  will  appear  as  we  next 
examine  the  Commonwealth  which  they  attempted  to  fash 
ion  and  administer  by  it. 

Those  who,  deterred  by  its  uninviting  character  and  hav 
ing  no  occasion  to  search  it,  are  wholly  unversed  in  our 
early  Puritan  literature  cannot  form  any  adequate  concep 
tion  of  the  stores  of  instruction,  illustration,  and  suggestion 
by  incident  and  example  which  it  yielded  to  its  close  and 
revering  readers.  In  recalling  the  past  we  must  be  as 
faithful  and  lenient  as  is  possible  to  its  tone  and  spirit. 


V. 

THE  BIBLICAL  COMMONWEALTH. 

/ 

IN  attempting  to  trace  in  the  following  pages  the  devel 
opment  of  the  aims  of  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  as 
set  forth  in  the  principles  and  measures  of  their  rule  in 
civil  and  religious  affairs,  the  writer  avails  himself  of  a 
plain  and  positive  statement  to  serve  as  did  a  text  for  a 
sermon  by  one  of  their  divines.  This  statement  must  an 
nounce  a  matter  of  fact  clearly  assured  and  certified  by 
satisfactory  evidence.  It  may  embrace  a  generalization  of 
very  many  particulars  which  will  serve  as  such  evidence, 
and  it  must  involve  only  such  merely  inferential  and  inci 
dental  elements  as,  without  being  strained  or  ingenious, 
shall  be  perfectly  consistent  with  the  facts  which  they  are 
intended  to  explain  or  supplement.  There  is,  however,  but 
little  occasion  for  relying  on  inferences  rather  than  facts 
in  defining  the  aims  and  principles  of  the  founders  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  These  will  be  abundantly  presented  by  them 
selves  in  their  avowals  and  proceedings.  The  writer  may  be 
permitted,  without  personal  obtrusiveness,  to  say  that  he  has 
read  and  thought  upon  substantially  all  that  is  extant  and 
accessible  in  print  or  in  manuscript  from  the  pens  of  those 
most  concerned  in  the  earliest  years  of  our  history.  Mr. 
Doyle  is  not  alone  in  suggesting  that  our  early  local  writers 
were  sufficiently  impressed  by  a  conceit  or  a  conviction  that 
their  subject  was  to  have  interest  for  the  world. 

The  statement  advanced,  to  be  followed  up  in  narration, 
is  this  :  The  founders  of  Massachusetts  —  the  prime  movers 


168  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

in  the  enterprise,  its  responsible  leaders,  the  proprietors  of 
its  franchise,  charged  with  its  government  and  welfare,  and 
its  watchful  guardians  against  the  many  risks  and  catas 
trophes  which  might  imperil  the  venture  —  held  a  deep  and 
*  earnest  conviction  under  the  supreme  inspiration  of  which 
they  acted.  It  may  be  expressed  as  follows  :  they  believed 
that  they  had  the  means  of  knowing  the  mind  and  will  of 
the  Supreme  Being  —  the  God  whom  they  most  reverently 
owned  and  worshipped  —  for  the  rule,  government,  and 
conduct  of  a  community  of  human  beings  in  a  social,  civ 
ilized  state ;  that  this  Divine  will  was  communicated  by 
revelation,  transmitted  through  a  Book.  Those  who  ac 
cepted  this  rule  put  themselves  under  a  covenant  of  obedi 
ence  to  it,  and  this  secured  to  them  the  right  and  privilege, 
and  held  them  to  the  obligation,  of  compelling  at  least  a 
respectful  regard  for  it  from  all  who  were  under  their  gov 
ernment.  The  only  alternative  which  they  recognized  for 
this  divinely  revealed  rule  was  the  being  left  to  the  insuf 
ficient  light  of  Nature,  as  all  other  peoples  of  the  earth 
had  been  except  Jews  and  Christians,  who  were  "  covenant 
people." 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  us  that  in  the  voluminous  records 
of  the  Court  of  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  we  can 
find  a  full  narration  of  its  legislation  and  administration. 
These  records  are  candid  and  communicative.  They  cover 
the  proceedings  of  the  corporation  in  England,  presenting 
the  reasons  and  method  for  its  transfer  with  its  charter 
to  this  country,  and  then  give  us  a  continuous  account  of 
legislative  and  executive  government  under  it.  We  have 
already  traced  in  the  motives  and  avowals  of  the  leaders  of 
the  enterprise  of  colonization  before  they  left  England,  the 
religious  spirit  and  prompting  which  moved  them.  Win- 
throp,  in  those  touching  and  earnest  expressions  of  his 
which. we  have  read,  may  justly  be  regarded  as  represent 
ing  his  associates.  And  we  have  had  before  us  that  dis 
tinctively  Puritan  belief  about  the  Bible  and  its  use  which 


THE   BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  169 

would  guide  them  in  their  government.  The  enterprise 
was  prompted  by  a  constraining  sincerity  and  elevation  of 
purpose.  There  can  be  no  uncertainty  or  question  about 
that.  Such  being  the  master  motive,  it  should  give  tone 
to  our  judgment  of  it.  That  motive,  though  of  course  not 
exclusive  of  others  of  a  secular  character,  was  paramount 
to  all  others.  It  was  not  a  mercenary  prompting,  nor  self- 
seeking,  nor  with  a  view  to  license  for  themselves  or  domi- 
nancy  over  others.  It  was  the  inspiration  of  duty,  not  a 
grasping  for  power.  The  scheme  would  require  self-sub 
jection  and  sacrifice  for  themselves,  and  restraint  and  a 
very  severe  discipline  to  be  exercised  over  others.  But  this 
was  not  all.  Most  certain  it  is  that  the  leaders  patiently 
and  faithfully  bore  the  burden  which  they  had  assumed  for 
themselves.  They  were  themselves  subject  to  the  stern  and 
iron  rule  of  their  own  principles.  They  were  not  restful,  or, 
as  we  say,  happy  in  themselves.  They  were  perplexed  arid 
tormented  by  vexations  of  their  own  invention.  Their  rule 
over  those  on  whom  they  imposed  their  discipline,  includ 
ing  many  who  were  in  covenant  with  them,  was  harsh  and 
cruel.  And  here  we  may  present  to  ourselves  what  in  our 
retrospect  appears  to  us  to  have  been  the  root  and  occasion 
of  all  their  errors,  of  the  infelicities  of  their  own  experi 
ence,  and  of  the  sufferings  of  others  at  their  hands.  We 
trace  it  in  the  assumption  and  conceit,  the  spiritual  pride 
and  intolerance  involved  in  their  persuasion  that  their  re 
ligious  covenant  had  secured  for  them  the  special  favor  of 
God,  and  qualified  and  empowered  them  to  extend  their 
religious  rule  as  representing  the  will  of  God  over  others. 
Sincerity  of  the  purest  and  most  profound  character  in 
holding  that  conviction  could  not  free  it  or  guard  it  from 
an  erroneous,  a  mischievous,  and  an  unjust  exercise  of 
authority. 

Let  a  suggestion  be  here  interposed  in  which  we  may 
recognize  and  admit  how  reasonable  and  natural  —  we  may 
even  say  how  inevitable  —  it  was  that  among  the  many  and 


170  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

varied  schemes,  secular  and  religious  in  their  aims,  which 
have  been  devised  in  successive  generations  and  under 
changing  circumstances  for  the  government  of  civilized 
men  in  their  civil  and  social  relations,  trial  in  its  turn 
should  be  made  of  a  Biblical  commonwealth.  While  the 
Republic  of  Plato  and  the  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More 
stand  as  expositions  of  the  ideal  of  commonwealths,  lit 
eral,  practical,  and  experimental  trials  of  such  on  various 
bases,  and  by  ingenious  schemes  and  organizations  present 
themselves  in  long  series  in  human  history.  Mennonites, 
Moravians,  and  Shakers  have  their  historic  and  their  liv 
ing  interest  for  those  who  study  them  in  their  substantial 
qualities  or  their  eccentricities.  Exactly  two  hundred  years 
after  the  so-called  Massachusetts  Theocracy  was  established 
there  appeared  among  us  the  phenomena  of  Mormonism, 
with  its  claim  of  religious  sanctions  and  purposes.  One 
may  trace  resemblances  or  utter  contrasts  between  these 
schemes  and  those  of  the  Puritan  State.  The  Mormons 
professed  to  be  directed  by  a  Book  of  Revelation,  with  an 
interpreting  prophet  and  inspired  bishops.  They  planted 
themselves  in  remote  regions  with  fresh,  wild,  but  fertile  ter 
ritory,  where  they  practised  thrift  and  secured  prosperity. 
Dark  disclosures  of  acts  of  lawlessness  and  violence,  mas 
sacres,  and  gross  immoralities  striking  at  the  purity  of  do 
mestic  life,  if  they  do  not  turn  into  contempt  and  scorn 
all  the  pretensions  of  Mormonism  to  be  a  divinely  insti 
tuted  and  organized  form  for  a  commonwealth,  put  it 
wholly  aside  from  the  Puritan  system  as  established  here. 
Reasons  quite  in  the  order  of  nature  and  experience  will 
suggest  themselves  to  us,  as  we  think  upon  the  matter, 
why  in  due  time,  with  fit  and  favoring  conditions  of  hu 
man  agents  with  motives  and  opportunities,  a  trial  should 
be  made  of  a  Biblical  commonwealth.  It  was  for  the 
founders  of  Massachusetts  to  make  that  trial.  They  not 
only  believed  that  the  conception  admitted  of  being  realized, 
but  under  the  spirit  and  faith  which  guided  them  they  were 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  171 

persuaded  that  a  constraining  obligation  held  them  to  place 
themselves  under  such  a  form  of  government,  civil  and  re 
ligious,  as  became  those  who  were  in  covenant  with  God. 
As  before  intimated,  this  experiment  is  not  to  be  regarded 
as  an  invention  of  their  own  ingenuity,  a  conceit  of  their 
own  fancies.  It  came  to  them  and  was  listened  to  by  them 
as  a  Divine  call  which  they  were  constrained  to  obey. 

If  the  fullest  information  which  we  can  reach  concerning 
the  ruling  motive  and  intent  of  the  leaders  in  this  scheme 
of  a  Biblical  commonwealth  warrants  the  view  here  taken 
of  it,  then  we  are  at  liberty  to  draw  from  it  an  inference 
which  should  come  in  to  help  us  in  pronouncing  judgment 
upon  the  character  of  their  administration.  Had  they  been 
attempting  to  put  on  trial  a  scheme  of  their  own  devising, 
like  a  communistic  or  associative  secular  enterprise,  or  one 
which  engaged  more  or  less  of  a  religious  purpose,  they 
would  have  been  amenable  to  judgment  not  only  for  the 
practical  working  of  their  scheme,  but  also  for  the  folly  or 
the  fancy  manifested  in  conceiving  it.  But  if  the  Fathers 
of  the  Massachusetts  Commonwealth  could  speak  to  us  it 
would  be  to  tell  us  hardly  more  plainly  than  they  do  in  their 
records,  that  the  enterprise  which  they  were  putting  on 
trial  was  not  theirs ;  they  did  not  devise  it,  and  therefore, 
in  trying  to  make  it  practicable,  were  not  responsible  for 
its  working,  nor  for  its  incidental  effects  upon  those  who 
opposed  it.  It  was  not  that  they  were  forcing  upon  others 
their  own  principles,  beliefs,  and  opinions.  They  had  put 
themselves  under  a  Divine  rule  which  God  had  revealed 
as  his  holy  will  and  law  for  all  men.  That  rule  was  as 
authoritative  and  exacting  for  the  unregenerate  and  the 
uncovenanted  around  them  and  among  them  as  it  was  for 
themselves.  The  only  difference  between  them  and  these 
others  was  that  they  "KadT acknowledged  their  obligations 
'  to  this  Divine  rule,  had  come  under  its  directions,  and  in 
tended  that  their  whole  policy  in  Church  and  State  should 
be  conformed  to  it.  They  had  reconciled  themselves  to  the 


s 


172  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

self-subjection,  self-denial,  and  sacrifice  which  it  required 
of  them.  They  had  renounced  all  of  their  naftira-Hiberties 
and  wilfulness  and  seeking  of  their  own  ends  and  pleasure 
which  their  covenant  with  God  demanded  of  them,  and 
had  put  themselves  in  his  hands  to  obey  his  commands, 
and  live  and  die  for  him. 

As  has  been  already  avowed  in  these  pages,  the  only  mo 
tive  which  the  writer  recognizes  as  prompting  an  intelligent 
and  candid  study  of  this  period  of  our  history,  with  its 
stern  legislators  and  the  severities  of  their  rule,  is  its 
significance  and  interest  as  presenting  one  phase  in  the 
working  out  of  human  progress  for  the  enlightenment  and 
enfranchisement  of  our  race.  The  subject  might  claim  an 
historical  study  if  it  merely  concerned  an  outburst  and 
spasm  of  religious  fanaticism.  But  this  Massachusetts  epi 
sode  was  something  other  and  better  than  that.  Recogniz 
ing,  as  we  have  done,  the  purity,  the  prevailing  sincerity, 
the  earnestness,  and  elevation  of  purpose  of  the  leaders  of 
the  enterprise,  we  acquit  them  of  all  hypocrisy  and  duplic 
ity,  and  we  accept  their  own  avowal  of  the  rule  by  which 
they  were  guided.  Their  self-defence,  then,  under  any  ques 
tion  or  censure  to  which  they  were  subjected,  would  consist 
in  a  plea  that  not  they,  but  God,  assumed  the  responsibility 
for  all  that  followed  in  the  sincere  attempt  to  administer  a 
commonwealth  according  to  his  revealed  will. 

This  plea  would  have  been  a  good  one  under  certain  es 
sential  conditions.  It  would  have  had  force  if  all  who  were 
concerned  in  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  —  the  leaders  and 
the  led,  the  governors  and  the  governed,  the  magistrates 
and  the  people  —  had  with  one  purpose  and  consent  freely 
and  heartily  put  themselves  under  that  Biblical  rule. 
Serious  practical  difficulties  and  perplexities,  and  enough 
of  them,  would  even  then  have  presented  themselves;  but 
they  would  have  been  different  in  form  and  in  treatment 
from  those  which  had  to  be  dealt  with  here.  Even  in  the 
Puritan  churches  where  this  covenant  of  a  common  belief 


THE   BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  173 

and  purpose  was  supposed  to  unite  all  the  members,  who 
also  voluntarily  pledged  themselves  to  come  under  each 
other's  "  watch  and  ward,"  there  was  disorder  with  discord. 
But  in  the  civil  commonwealth  this  Divine  rule,  as  inter 
preted  and  exercised  by  those  only  who  had  recognized  its 
obligation,  had  not  been  accepted  by  all  over  whom  it  was 
extended.  Those  who  represented  God  and  who  claimed 
to  be  acting  for  God  in  the  commonwealth  were  from  the 
first  a  minority  of  the  people.  They  began  by  securing  the 
civil  franchise  exclusively  to  themselves.  Their  struggles 
to  retain  it  and  their  own  way  of  exercising  it  involved 
them  in  all  their  austere  and  severe  proceedings  against 
disturbers  and  opponents.  This  qlajiDyto  represent  God,  as 
his  authorized  agents  in  interpreting  his  laws  and  will  for 
the  administration  of  civil  affairs,  was  constantly  asserted 
by  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  ;  nor  did  they  hesitate 
to  affirm  it  in  their  intermeddling  with  the  institution  and 
discipline  of  their  churches.  In  an  appeal  in  behalf  of  the 
maintenance  of  ministers  the  Court  speaks  as  "  nursing 
fathers  of  the  churches."  1  Nursing  "  fathers  "  may  not 
be  expected  to  be  as  tender  and  gentle  as  the  more  appro 
priate  nurses  ;  and  so  we  find  that  some  of  the  most  arbi 
trary  proceedings  of  the  Court  were  in  the  affairs  of  the 
religious  fellowships,  which  in  the  institution  of  them  were 
nominally  intended  and  asserted  to  be  independent  and 
self-regulated. 

The  most  odious  aspect  and  quality  of  Puritanism  to 
those  most  repelled  by  antipathy  to  it,  in  its  own  age  and 
in  the  judgment  of  our  times,  is  the  assumption  and  con 
ceit  connected  with  the  belief  of  an  elect  and  special  fa 
voritism  with  God  secured  by  a  personal  covenant  with  him. 
Christendom  in  its  average  spirit  will  not  allow  that  any 
one  can  hold  that  belief  in  humility  and  in  generous  sym 
pathy  with  his  race.  The  claiming  a  right  to  the  "  long 
boat"  for  escape  from  a  wreck,  leaving  the  whole  ship's 

1  Records,  iii.  424. 


174  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

company  to  their  fate,  is  not  a  manifestation  of  nobleness 
or  generosity.  The  Puritan  view  of  God  as  the  pitying, 
merciful  Father  of  all  his  children  was  wholly  subordinate 
to  their  view  of  him  as  a  stern  sovereign,  ruling  by  decrees 
which  were  as  inexorable  as  those  of  Fate  on  its  brazen 
throne  of  destiny.  The  familiar  popular  gibe  which  gained 
its  currency  in  the  Puritan  age  — "  The  world  belongs  to 
the  saints,  and  we  are  the  saints  "  —  is  not  overstrained 
in  its  sarcasm  against  those  who  claim  any  measure  of  pre 
cedence  or  authority  over  others  as  themselves  an  elect  and 
covenanted  people. 

We  return  from  this  digression  to  acquaint  ourselves 
from  their  own  records  and  proceedings  with  the  form  of 
rule  in  Church  and  State  set  up  by  the  Massachusetts  Puri 
tans.  It  may  fitly  be  described  as  a  Biblical  common 
wealth.  This  was  a  form  of  government  which  should  find 
its  model  in  the  whole  Bible  as  the  Jewish  commonwealth 
was  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament.  And  yet  in  tracing 
the  working  out  of  the  Puritan  form  of  government  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  we  are  constantly  reminded  by  many  significant 
facts  that  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  had 
more  weight  with  them  —  certainly  were  more  frequently 
and  constantly  referred  to  for  guidance  and  examples — than 
the  Christian  Scriptures.  The  Puritans,  however,  were  un- 
-wc  dertaking  to  found  and  organize  a  state.  The  Christian 
Scriptures  had  nothing  direct  and  specific  for  aiding  this 
object.  These  rather  assumed  and  took  for  granted  the 
existence  of  civil  and  religious  institutions,  without  desig 
nating  or  defining  them.  It  was  the  Old  Testament  that 
furnished  the  Puritan  pattern,  "  the  statutes,  laws,  and  or 
dinances  of  God."  How  they  distinguished  among  these 
such  as  they  should  re-enact  will  by  and  by  be  stated. 
'  There  was  not  a  single  professionally  trained  lawyer  in  their 
corporation,  nor  is  there  the  slightest  intimation  in  their 
records  that  they  regretted  or  felt  the  deficiency.  They 
believed  they  had  a  substitute  in  a  Divine  statute-book. 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  175 

The  politics  of  Puritanism  were  developed  from  its  the- 1 
ology.  Its  legislation  consisted  in  the  re-enactment  by  men  j 
o£jhe  laws  of  God.  The  Puritans  had  satisfied  themselves 
that  they  had  means  of  knowing  positively  and  fully  what  \ 
these  laws  of  God  were  for  the  government  of  a  civilized 
community.  They  did  not  feel  the  need  of  an  earthly 
monarch,  as  the  King  of  kings  was  enough  for  them. 
Hence  their  theology  and  their  policy  matured  into  democ 
racy,  though  our  early  Puritans  appear  not  to  have  appre 
hended  that  fruitage,  and  would  have  repudiated  it. .  We 
have  been  accustomed  in  later  times  to  the  description  of 
their  Biblical  commonwealth  as  a  theocracy.  Such  in 
fact  it  was  intended  to  be,  and  so  far  as  their  experiment 
succeeded,  they  thought  it  was.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however, 
that  neither  in  their  Court  Records  nor  in  their  private 
papers  do  they  adopt  that  term,  though  its  intended 
equivalents  appear.  I  can  recall  only  one  occurrence  of 
the  word  "  theocracy  "  in  our  earliest  literature,  and  there 
its  connection  gives  it  interest.  In  1636  Governor  Win- 
throp  received  certain  inquiries  and  propositions  "  from 
some  persons  of  great  quality  and  estate,  and  of  special 
note  for  piety,  whereby  they  discovered  their  intentions  to 
join  the  Colony,  if  they  might  receive  satisfaction  therein."1 
The  proposals  contemplated  two  houses  of  government :  the 
one  of  nobles  and  gentlemen,  with  hereditary  rank  and 
rights,  from  whom  the  Governor  should  be  always  chosen  ; 
the  other  of  freeholders  of  the  commonalty.  Each  house 
should  have  a  negative.  In  reply  to  these  proposals  Mr. 
Cotton,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Saye  and  Sele,  gives  us  the  fol 
lowing  very  clear  description  of  the  form  of  government  by 
the  Bible  model  which  was  being  set  up  here  as  "  an  ad-  / 
ministration  of  a  civil  state  according  to  God  :  " 

"  I  am  very  apt  to  believe  that  the  word  and  Scriptures  of  God 
doe  conteyne  a  short  upoluposis,  or  platforme,  not  onely  of  theology, 

1  Winthrop,  i.  135. 


176  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

but  also  of  other  sacred  sciences,  attendants,  and  hand  maids  there 
unto,  —  ethicks,  (Economics,  polities,  church-government,  prophecy, 
academy.  It  is  very  suitable  to  God's  all-sufficient  wisdom,  and  to  | 
the  fulness  and  perfection  of  Holy  Scriptures,  not  only  to  prescribe 
perfect  rules  for  the  right  ordering  of  a  private  man's  soule,  but  \ 
also  for  the  right  ordering  of  a  man's  family,  yea,  of  the  common-  j 
wealth  too.  When  a  commonwealth  hath  liberty  to  mould  his 
owne  frame,  I  conceyve  the  Scripture  hath  given  full  direction  for 
the  right  ordering  of  the  same.  Demoercracy  I.  do  not  conceyve 
that  ever  God  did  ordeyne  as  a  fitt  government  eyther  for  church 
or  commonwealth.  If  the  people  be  governors,  who  shall  be  gov 
erned?  As  for  monarchy  and  aristocracy,  they  are  both  of  them 
clearly  approved  and  directed  in  Scripture,  yet  so  as  referreth 
the  soveraigntie  to  himselfe  and  setteth  up  Theocracy  in  both 
as  the  best  forme  of  government  in  the  commonwealth  as  well  as 
in  the  church."  1 

In  "  An  Introductory  Essay  "  to  an  edition  of  Wood's  New 
England's  Prospect  (Boston,  1764),  the  writer  says :  — 

"  The  first  plan  of  the  government  established  a  kind  of  The 
ocracy  by  making  the  Word  of  God  the  law.  This  gave  the  clergy 
infinite  weight  in  the  constitution  ;  they  were  naturally  the  exposi 
tors  of  the  law,  and  in  so  young  a  country  were  almost  the  only 
men  of  learning.  From  this  circumstance  the  attachment  and  def 
erence  to  their  cloth  was  almost  implicit ;  and  for  aught  I  know,  to 
this  very  cause  may  the  greatest  errors  into  which  the  country  fell 
in  its  first  settlement  be  ascribed." 

The  qualification  to  which  this  intimation  of  the  prevail 
ing  power  of  the  clergy  and  of  their  main  responsibility 
for  the  errors  of  government  must  be  subjected,  will  be 
stated  further  on  in  these  pages. 

In  a  contention  which  arose  in  1646  between  the  magis 
trates  and  the  deputies,  as  to  the  powers  of  the  former  by 
the  Charter  and  by  election  to  act  in  the  vacancy  of  the 
General  Court,  certain  questions  were  submitted  to  the 

1  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  Appendix  iii. 


THE    BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  177 

elders  as  arbitrators.  One  of  the  questions  was  whether 
the  magistrates  "  in  cases  where  there  is  noe  particular  ex- 
presse  laws  provided,  were  to  be  guided  by  the  word  of 
God  till  the  generall  courte  give  particular  rules  in  such 
cases  "  ?  To  this  the  elders,  with  caution  and  yet  decision, 
made  answer :  — 

"  Wee  do  not  find  that  by  the  pattent  they  are  expressly  directed 
to  proceed  according  to  the  word  of  God,  but  we  understand  that 
by  a  law  or  libertie  of  the  country  they  may  act  in  cases  where 
in  as  yet  there  is  no  expresse  law,  soe  that  in  such  acts  they 
proceed  according  to  the  word  of  God."  ] 

In  this  paper  of  the  elders  Scripture  texts  are  quoted 
to  justify  variable  penalties  for  variable  grades  of  guilt,  as 
in  murder,  and  also  to  warrant  magistrates  in  mitigating 
the  penalty  to  a  delinquent  who  had  previously  done  good 
service  to  the  State  :  "  So  Solomon  mitigated  the  pun 
ishment  of  Abiathar  for  his  service  done  to  his  father 
formerly."  2 

More  to  the  point  of  the  purpose  and  intent  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  Massachusetts  to  establish  a  theocracy  than 
would  be  distinct  and  repeated  assertions  of  such  a  pur 
pose,  is  the  fact  to  be  traced  in  their  statutes  and  cpurt 
proceedings  and  in  the  penalties  inflicted  for  various  of 
fences,  that  they  invariably  followed  the  rule  and  lead  of 
the  Scriptures.  Their  delay  in  forming  a  code  of  their 
own  was  submitted  to  by  the  assumption  that  the  Bible 
would  serve  them  in  all  serious  matters.  How  did  they 
fashion  to  themselves  their  idea  of  a  theocracy  ? 

Those  who  believe  in  One  Supreme  Being  as  the  Creator, 
Disposer,  and  Ruler  of  all  things,  as  a  consequence  believe 
that  the  government  of  this  and  of  all  worlds  is  a  the 
ocracy.  Its  laws,  physical  and  moral,  its  methods,  opera 
tions,  results,  and  destined  issues  are  all  under  God's 

1  Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  179,  180. 

2  1  Kings  ii.  26,  27. 

12 


178  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

appointment  and  administration.  So  far  as  any  faculties 
which  we  possess  qualify  us  for  recognizing  and  under 
standing  those  laws  and  methods,  they  are  to  be  inferred 
by  us  from  observation  and  experience.  The  character, 
attributes,  and  purposes  of  God  would  then  have  to  be 
indicated  and  deduced  from  what  that  observation  and 
experience  as  the  actual  methods  of  his  government  as 
sure  to  us.  From  what  we  could  thus  learn  to  be  his  will 
we  might  infer  our  own  duty,  either  as  his  subjects  or  his 
children. 

Here  we  have  opened  to  us  the  vast  theme  of  natural 
religion,  launching  us  upon  the  boundless  ocean  of  all 
perplexities  and  mysteries.  The  limitations  of  the  subject 
proposed  for  treatment  in  these  pages  preclude  anything 
beyond  the  mere  statement  of  the  two  widely  diverse  direc 
tions  into  which  natural  religion  has  led  the  thoughts,  the 
imaginations,  and  the  conclusions  of  men.  One  of  these 
is  sufficiently  denned  under  the  general  term  of  heathen 
ism  ;  the  other  has  the  nobler  title  of  philosophy.  Both 
of  them  imply  that  man  is  left  to  himself  in  thought,  in 
quiry,  and  search.  He  sees  and  he  thinks,  he  imagines 
and  he  reasons.  He  becomes  abject  or  bold,  in  view  of 
his  attitude  before  the  Unknown,  and  according  to  the  con 
clusions  in  which  he  rests.  Of  the  follies  and  superstitions 
of  heathenism,  the  barbarities  and  atrocities  which  have 
dehumanized  its  votaries,  we  need  not  simply  to  turn  to 
history  for  our  knowledge,  for  the  survivals  of  it  are  hide 
ous.  Philosophy  has  a  brighter,  if  still  an  unsatisfactory 
record ;  and  of  recent  years  science  has  come  in  as  an  aid 
and  guide  in  dealing  with  the  vast  problems  which  engage 
men's  minds.  Cicero  uttered  the  truth,  which  needs  no 
argument  to  support  it,  that  if  man  is  to  receive  any  help 
beyond  his  own  observation  and  experience  in  interpreting 
the  ways  of  God,  it  must  be  furnished  directly  by  God 
himself. 

The  theocracy  which  is  the  subject  of  our  present  study 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  179 

was  one  founded  on  the  belief  that  God  had  disclosed  him 
self,  had  put  himself  into  direct  communication  with  men, 
prompting  them  and  instructing  them  to  set  up  a  theocracy 
among  themselves,  —  a  commonwealth  to  be  administered 
for  and  by  God. 

And  what  if  man  should  not  thus  be  left  to  his  own 
resources  of  experience  and  observation,  of  inquiry  and 
speculation  as  to  a  knowledge  of  God,  his  character,  will, 
and  purposes  ?  It  is  supposable  that,  either  according  to 
design  in  original  purpose,  as  needful  to  complement  the 
resources  of  human  nature,  or  in  pity  for  its  gropings  and 
failures,  God  may  disclose  himself,  put  himself  into  com 
munication  with  men  "  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners."  The  proof,  the  assurance  that  he  had  done  so 
would  be  satisfactory  if  it  secured  thorough  conviction  of 
its  reality  in  the  breasts  of  human  beings,  —  prompting, 
invigorating,  and  enlightening  them.  Two  methods  are 
conceivable  for  this  divine  reinforcement,  assurance,  and 
enlightenment  of  men.  One  is  by  some  startling  phe 
nomena  or  marvels,  out  of  the  ordinary  course  of  Nature, 
engaging  the  senses  and  quickening  the  reverence  of  men, 
bidding  them  heed,  wonder,  and  respond.  The  other 
method  is  by  the  illumination  of  man's  inner  powers  by 
motions  and  inspirations,  impulses  and  assurances  which 
would  leave  the  impress  of  divine  messages.  These,  when 
received  by  men,  would  bear  repetition, — the  transfer  from 
the  mind  and  conscience  of  the  receiver  to  other  minds 
and  consciences.  They  might  be  written,  and  so  stand  for 
revelations. 

The  self-disclosure  of  God  to  men  by  the  method  called 
revelation  offers  themes  for  curious  questioning  and  dis 
cussion,  more  direct  and  positive  in  their  materials  and 
means,  but  not  one  whit  less  perplexing,  than  those  of 
natural  religion.  These,  however,  are  not  to  our  present 
purpose ;  for  we  are  to  deal  with  the  form  of  government 
of  a  commonwealth  established  and  administered  by  those 


180  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

who  heartily  and  devoutly  believed  that  God  had  revealed 
his  counsels  and  will  to  them  so  as  to  furnish  them  stat 
utes  and  ordinances  enabling  them  to  act  in  co-operation 
with  him. 

Revelation,  as  they  accepted  it,  involved  two  processes  : 
1.  The  disclosure  of  himself  by  God  to  some  chosen  by 
him  for  such  intercourse,  in  two  ways,  —  one  by  startling 
phenomena  through  their  senses,  out  of  course  with  Nature, 
engaging  their  awe  and  reverence ;  the  other  by  inward 
monitions  and  exercises,  promptings  and  inspirations,  im 
pelling  influences,  which  should  be  to  them  as  voices, 
assurances,  and  messages.  Men  thus  Divinely  illuminated 
would  need,  first,  to  be  self -convinced  of  the  reality  and 
Divine  source  of  these  communications,  and  then  'to  be 
qualified  to  satisfy  others  that  God  had  been  in  converse 
with  them.  2.  The  record  of  these  facts  and  communica 
tions  would  then  constitute  "  a  book  revelation,"  inspired 
Scriptures,  the  Word  of  God. 

The  modern  spirit  of  criticism,  speculation,  and  ration 
alism  comes  into  the  sharpest  collision  with  the  faith 
which  guided  the  convictions  of  the  founders  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  theocracy.  In  view  of  the  tender  and  devout 
beliefs  which  have  so  long  in  tradition  and  enshrined 
affection  accepted  the  Bible  as  revealing  the  Divine  will 
and  purposes  to  those  favored  with  the  knowledge  of  it, 
we  may  well  recognize  the  fact  that  our  object  here  is  not 
to  discuss  the  grounds  of  those  beliefs,  but  simply  to  study 
the  proceedings  of  a  company  of  men  who  firmly  held 
them  and  acted  by  them.  We  know  with  what  a  full, 
intense,  and  unquestioning  confidence  they  held  a  u  book 
revelation."  In  order  that  we  may  appreciate  their  be 
lief,  we  may  fairly  ask  what  were  the  origin  and  grounds 
of _jt,  —  not,  however,  as  we  would  follow  the  question  if 
we  were  pursuing  it  for  ourselves,  but  simply  as  tracing 
the  attitude  of  their  minds  toward  it.  The  religious  litera 
ture  of  the  Puritan  age  was  in  many  of  its  distinctive 


THE    BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  181 

qualities  quite  unlike  that  of  our  time,  and  in  no  one 
quality  more  than  this,  —  that  it  did  not  deal  with  argu 
ments,  defences,  and  evidences  addressed  to  unbelievers 
or  rationalists,  but  took  faith  for  granted,  and  sought  for 
edification. 

What  were  the  methods  and  assurances  by  which  God 
made  these  disclosures  to  men,  as  they  were  read  and  ac 
cepted  by  believers  in  a  book  revelation  ?  How  out  of 
the  silence  and  from  behind  the  veils  of  Nature,  from  the 
mystery  of  the  unseen  and  supernal,  came  intelligible  re- 
vealings  to  sense  and  spirit  to  those  whom  God  chose  to 
receive  his  illuminations,  his  promptings,  his  messages,  his 
defined  and  positive  commands  ?  We  read  of  theophanies, 
—  visible  appearances  or  symbolisms  of  God.  We  read  of 
signs,  ordinary  or  startling,  which  waited  for  an  interpre 
tation.  We  read  of  actual  tests  to  which  God  was  sub 
jected  to  confirm  a  halting  belief.  Some  of  these  may 
appear  to  us  trivial  and  puerile  in  the  narration.  Others 
of  them  are  sublime  and  august  in  method  and  effect.  In 
the  affluence  of  Oriental  idea  and  imagery  they  fix  our 
deepest  impressions.  When  men  assume  "  to  speak  for 
God,"  the  risks  which  they  run  must  find  a  safeguard  only 
in  the  fitness  and  adequacy  of  the  utterance. 

How  do  these  revealings  present  themselves  on  the 
record  ?  They  are  rich  in  variety,  and  winning  in  their 
simplicity.  In  recent  years  the  ethnic  religions  have 
been  the  subjects  of  comparative  study,  with  the  materials 
for  setting  their  divine  elements  by  the  side  of  those  of 
the  Bible.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  the  first  representative 
of  our  race  had  direct  personal  intercourse  with  God, 
which  by  disobedience  he  forfeited  for  himself  and  his 
posterity.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  which  rehearses  the  champions  of  faith  and  the 
witnesses  for  God,  may  stand  for  all  time  and  for  all  read 
ers  as  the  grandest  of  the  roles  of  heroism.  Noah  was 
u  warned  of  God,"  and  the  nature  of  the  inward  warning 


182  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

may  be  inferred  from  the  course  which  he  followed. 
Abram's  call  was  certified  in  his  self-exile  and  obedience. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  match  in  any  imagery  of  simplicity 
and  beauty  the  dream  of  Jacob,  when  it  was  disclosed  to 
him  that  God  was  in  that  place,  and  he  had  not  known  it, 
but  had  come  to  know  it.  Moses  asked,  first,  for  full  as 
surance  that  God  talked  with  him,  and  then  for  means  of 
convincing  his  people  of  it.  He  became,  save  in  moments 
of  despondency,  assured  for  himself,  and  he  impressed  the 
conviction  —  faltering  and  inconstant  indeed  —  upon  them. 
There  is  a  charming  and  childlike  simplicity  in  the  tests  or 
feats  to  which  Gideon  is  represented  as  subjecting  God  to 
assure  his  own  halting  belief  that  he  was  chosen  to  wield 
"  the  sword  of  the  Lord"  against  his  enemies.1  Gideon, 
first,  proposed  to  leave  his  "  fleece  of  wool "  exposed, 
and  if  it  should  be  moistened  with  dew  while  the  earth 
around  was  dry,  then  he  should  know  that  God  had  made 
him  his  champion.  The  result  was  satisfactory.  But  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  Gideon  thought  he  should  be 
safer  in  proposing  a  reversal  of  the  experiment.  He  would 
again  expose  the  fleece,  asking  that  it  should  be  kept  dry 
while  the  dew  moistened  all  the  ground.  In  this  also  he 
was  gratified.  This  is  puerile ;  but  offset  it  with  a  Scrip 
ture  passage  which  we  may  challenge  the  whole  literature 
of  the  world  to  match  for  august  sublimity  and  the  ten- 
derest  grace  of  simplicity.  It  is  a  passage  which  brings 
together  the  infinite  remoteness  of  God  and  his  intimate 
nearness.  "  Thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that  in- 
habiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy :  I  dwell  in  the  high 
and  holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and 
humble  spirit."  2  It  is  not  in  place  here  to  present  in  fur 
ther  details  examples  of  the  two  methods  by  which  Divine 
communications  were  believed  to  be  made  and  certified,  — 
that  is,  by  marvels,  portents,  visions,  and  miracles,  and 
by  inspirations  and  inner  illuminations.  The  Puritans 

1  Judges  vi.  37-40.  "  Isaiah  Ivii.  15. 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  183 

received  the  sacred  volume,  as  thus  divinely  attested  to 
them,  as  revealing  the  will  of  God,  —  as  the  "  Word  of 
God."  Why  should  it  not  furnish  them  not  only  the  rule 
for  their  individual  life,  but  also  the  statute-book  for  civil 
administration  for  themselves  and  for  their  rule  to  be 
exercised  over  others  ? 

We  have  here  intimated  the  radical  and  fatal  difficulty 
which  the  leaders  in  the  planting  of  this  State  had  pre 
pared  for  themselves  in  the  inception  of  a  Biblical  com 
monwealth.  While  their  own  recognition  of  it  was  sincere, 
and  their  loyalty  to  it  was  earnest,  its  authority  over  others 
was  arbitrary,  and  required  constraint  to  enforce  it.  It  is 
a  bold  and  hazardous  assumption  for  a  body  of  men,  how 
ever  noble,  devout,  and  even  wise  they  may  be,  to  regard 
themselves  as  representing  God  to  their  fellow-men  in 
magistracy  and  authority.  In  the  class  called  by  the  in 
clusive  title  of  "  reformers,"  -  the  grander  minds  and  the 
finer  spirits,  enlightened  and  quickened  beyond  all  others 
of  their  age,  protesters  against  error  and  wrong,  seers  of 
emancipating  and  liberalizing  visions,  martyrs  in  noble 
heroism,  —  latently,  consciously,  or  avowedly  lives  the 
conviction  that  they  represent  God,  his  truth  and  will,  to 
men,  and  that  they  are  interpreting  and  applying  them  as 
his  agents.  There  have  been  those  —  the  elect  of  our  race 
—  whose  visions  were  realities,  and  whose  prophecies  were 
fulfilled.  But  reformers,  as  a  class,  as  viewed  by  conserva 
tives,  have  been  generally  regarded  as  mingling  their  own 
inspirations  with  those  from  a  higher  source.  Claiming  to 
speak  and  work  for  God,  they  seem  at  times  to  be  impa 
tient  of  the  slow  processes  and  delays  by  which,  as  the 
seed  grows  to  fruitage,  what  they  regard  as  the  purposes 
of  God  are  matured.  So  to  the  patient  conservative,  who 
says  that  time  will  effect  all  wise  and  healthful  changes 
gradually,  the  reformers  seem,  so  to  speak,  as  if  they  were 
hurrying  God.  Certainly  the  Magistrates  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  theocracy  presented  themselves  in  that  character 


184  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

when  they  attempted  to  make  for  others  a  rule  from  what 
by  their  own  interpretation  and  faith  they  regarded  as  a 
Divine  method  for  administering  a  commonwealth.  Not 
all  whom  they  governed  held  their  belief  about  the  Scrip 
tures.  Even  writers  of  Scripture  have  said  many  things 
for  God  which  an  intelligent  reverence  refuses  to  receive 
as  divine.  Deeds  have  been  charged  to  his  prompting 
which  bear  all  the  marks  of  having  been  instigated  by  the 
malevolence,  the  passions,  or  the  delusions  of  men.  It  is 
to  be  noted  that  in  no  public  or  private  records  of  the  time 
do  we  find  a  trace  of  any  opening  or  discussion  of  the 
question  between  the  Puritan  authorities  and  those  who 
smarted  under  their  discipline,  either  of  the  rightfulness 
and  wisdom  of  the  attempt  to  govern  a  commonwealth  by 
the  Bible,  or  of  the  competency  of  the  authorities  to  use 
the  Book  discreetly  in  their  legislation.  We  have  to  rest 
in  the  admission  that  this  ideal  of  a  commonwealth  was 
entitled  in  its  turn  to  have  a  trial,  and  then  to  study  its 
workings  and  results. 

Let  us  select  from  the  abounding  variety  of  the  matter 
in  our  hands  some  illustrations  of  the  use  of  Scripture 
made  by  these  Bible  legislators.  It  being  at  once  appre 
hended  that  the  "  Statutes  and  Ordinances  of  Israel "  could 
not  be  adopted  in  their  completeness  as  a  whole,  the  first 
rule  was  to  be  found  in  distinguishing  among  them  and 
selecting  such  as  were  of  general  and  permanent  authority. 
They  were  divided  very  readily  into  three  classes, — judi 
cial,  moral,  and  ceremonial.  The  last  was  to  be  dispensed 
with  ;  the  former  two  were  to  be  retained,  with  adaptations, 
if  such  were  needed.  The  "  magistrate  "  in  these  matters, 
rather  than  the  elder,  was  the  "  minister  of  God,"  and  it 
was  for  him  to  assume  authority  as  such.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  Ten  Commandments  were  for  perpetual  and  uni 
versal  observance.  But  here  was  found  the  first  rock  on 
which  the  State-Church  struck.  The  Commandments  were 
divided  into  "  Two  Tables,"  —  the  first  four  covering  one  ; 


THE   BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  185 

the  other  six  the  other.  The  first  table  concerns  the  duties 
which  man  owes  to  God,  as  those  of  religion, —  namely, 
reverence,  worship,  the  use  of  oaths,  and  the  observance  of 
the  Sabbath.  The  second  table  covers  the  duties  which 
men  owe  to  men.  The  magistrate,  as  the  minister  of  God, 
claimed  that  his  jurisdiction  covered  both  tables.  Roger 
Williams,  as  we  shall  see,  took  his  firm  stand,  which  he 
resolutely  maintained,  upon  his  bold  denial  of  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  magistrate  —  the  civil  power  —  over  the  matters 
of  the  first  table.  In  plainer  terms,  that  able  and  far- 
sighted  prophet  of  soul-freedom  forbade  the  State  to  as 
sume  any  legislation  or  administration  of  religion.  This 
was  the  first,  indeed,  the  fatal  blow  dealt  the  Massachusetts 
theocracy.  But  the  magistrates,  with  adroit  ingenuity, 
had  a  way  of  parrying  the  blow.  We  shall  note  in  the 
trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  that  Governor  Winthrop  charged 
her  directly  with  a  breach  of  the  Fifth  Commandment,  — 
"  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother."  She  might  well 
have  been  astounded  by  this  charge  had  she  not  known 
what  the  Fifth  Commandment  covered  for  Puritan  legisla 
tion.  To  the  question  in  the  Westminster  standard,  "  Who 
are  meant  by  father  and  mother  ? "  we  have  the  answer : 

"  By  father  and  mother,  in  the  Fifth  Commandment,  are  meant 
not  only  natural  parents,  but  all  superiours  in  Age  and  Gifts,  and 
especially  such  as  by  God's  ordinance  are  over  us  in  place  of 
Authority,  whether  in  Family,  Church,  or  Commonwealth." 

Nor  were  Scripture  citations  lacking  to  sustain  this 
position.  An  effective  argument  was  found  in  support  of 
the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  in  the  province  of  re 
ligion,  in  the  example  of  "  Josiah  the  Supreme  Governour 
of  the  true  Church  in  Judah  and  Israel,  who  took  away  all 
the  abominations  out  of  all  the  Countries  that  appertained 
to  the  children  of  Israel,  and  compelled  all  that  were  found 
in  Israel  tp  serve  the  Lord  their  God."  1 

1  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  33. 


186  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

The  Scripture  called  "  Solomon's  Song  "  or  "  the  Can 
ticles  "  is  not  in  our  times  regarded  as  edifying,  either  in 
the  pulpit  or  for  private  reading ;  but  for  the  Puritans  it 
was  a  deep  and  precious  mine  for  devotion,  as  illustrating 
"  the  love  of  Christ  for  his  bride,  the  Church."  On  the 
arrival  of  Mr.  Cotton,  Winthrop  tells  us  there  was  a  meet 
ing  of  the  congregation  of  Boston,  Saturday  evening,  Sept.  4, 
1633,  in  "their  ordinary  exercise  :  "  — 

"Mr.  Cotton,  being  desired  to  speak  to  the  question  (which 
was  of  the  church),  he  showed  out  of  the  Canticles,  6,  that  some 
churches  were  as  queens,  some  as  concubines,  some  as  damsels, 
and  some  as  doves,"  etc.1 

When  the  planters  at  New  Haven  proceeded  to  organize, 
they  met  in  a  large  barn  on  June  4, 1639.  Mr.  Davenport 
preached  from  Proverbs  ix.  1 :  "  Wisdom  hath  builded  her 
house  ;  she  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars.'7  His  "  im 
provement  "  was  that  in  settling  the  foundations  of  Church 
and  State  seven  approved  brethren  should  be  selected  as 
pillars.  His  counsel  was  followed.  He  also  taught  u  as 
fundamental  orders,"  — 

"  1.  That  the  Scriptures  hold  forth  a  perfect  rule  for  men  in 
their,  family,  church,  and  commonwealth  affairs.  2.  That  the 
rules  of  Scripture  were  to  govern  the  gathering  and  ordering  of 
the  church,  the  choice  of  magistrates  and  officers,  the  making  and 
repeal  of  laws,  the  dividing  of  allotments  of  inheritance,  and  all 
things  of  like  nature.  3.  That  all  *  free  planters  '  were  to  become 
such  with  the  resolution  and  intention  to  be  admitted  into  church 
fellowship  as  soon  as  God  should  fit  them  thereunto.  4.  That 
civil  order  was  to  be  such  as  should  conduce  to  securing  the 
purity  and  peace  of  the  ordinances  to  the  free  planters  and  their 
posterity." 

Mr.  Cotton,  in  answer  to  a  letter  of  questions  put  to  him 
by  a  friend,  justified  the  praying  for  a  person  by  name, 
from  Ephesians  vi.  19.  He  adds  :  — 

1  Winthrop,  i.  110. 


THE   BIBLICAL    COMMONWEALTH.  187 

"  Carding  I  take  to  be  unlawful  and  containing  in  it  a  lottery, 
at  least  in  the  shuffling  and  cutting  and  dealing.  A  lottery  also 
it  is  to  choose  valentines.  Dancing  (yea  though  mixt)  I  would  not 
simply  condemn  ;  for  I  see  two  sorts  of  mixt  dancings  in  use  with 
God's  people  in  the  Old  Testament,  —  the  one  religious,  Ex.  xv. 
20,  21 ;  the  other  civil,  tending  to  the  praise  of  conquerors,  as 
the  former  of  God,  1  Sam.  xviii.  6,  7.  Only  lascivious  dancing 
to  wanton  ditties  and  in  amorous  gestures  and  wanton  dalliances, 
especially  after  great  feasts,  I  would  bear  witness  against  as  a 
great  flabella  libidinis." 1 

When  that  black  sheep  of  the  covenant,  Captain  Under- 
liill,  —  mildly  dealt  with  for  gross  immorality  by  the  out 
raged  Church  because  of  his  military  prowess,  —  returned 
with  his  laurels  from  the  Pequot  war,  he  was  "  convented  " 
for  his  Antinomianism  and  for  having  "  set  his  hand  "  to 
a  remonstrance  offensive  to  the  Court.  He  defended  him 
self  by  quoting  the  case  of  Joab  in  his  remonstrance,  and 
insisting  that  military  officers  were  by  all  states  allowed 
free  speech.  He  himself  when  in  service  in  the  Low  Coun 
tries  "  had  spoken  his  mind  to  Count  Nassau."  But  his  plea 
failed.2  The  Court  carefully  studied  the  Scripture  citation, 
as  lawyers  now  refer  to  decisions  and  precedents. 

Mr.  Cotton,  expounding  of  the  defection  of  the  ten  tribes 
from  Rehoboam,  and  the  prophet's  prohibition  of  war,  — 

"  Proved  from  that  in  Numbers  xxvii.  21  that  the  rulers  of  the 
people  should  consult  with  the  ministers  of  the  churches  upon  oc 
casion  of  any  war  to  be  undertaken,  and  any  other  weighty  busi 
ness,  though  the  case  should  seem  never  so  clear,  as  David  in 
the  case  of  Ziglag,  and  the  Israelites  in  the  case  of  Gibeah."  * 

The  Bible  having  long  been  discredited  for  such  uses  as 
the  Puritans  made  of  it  in  finding  parallelisms  of  occasion^ 
and  rule  for  guiding  their  own  course  and  administration, 

1  2  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  x.  183. 
3  Winthrop,  i.  247. 
8  Winthrop,  i.  237. 


188  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

modern  readers,  not  so  familiar  with  the  volume  as  they 
were,  would  be  impatient  of  any  extended  illustrations  of 
the  matter  now  before  us. 

When  a  pressing  need  was  felt  for  erecting  a  new  hall 
for  the  College  in  1677,  the  Court  made  an  appeal  for  col 
lections  to  the  ministers 'and  elders  of  several  towns.  The 
argument  relied  upon  was  by  a  citation  of  Scripture  :  — 

"  Wee  shall  only  desire  you  to  consider  that  Scripture,  1  Chron. 
xxix.,  especially  from  verses  10  to  17,  wherein  David  and  the  peo 
ple  of  Israeli  gave  liberally  unto  a  good  worke,  praysing  God  that 
he  had  given  them  hearts  to  offer  so  willingly,  acknowledging 
that  all  their  substance  came  from  God,  and  that  of  his  owne 
they  had  given  him."  1 

These  illustrations  of  the  readiness  and  confidence  with 
which  Scripture  precedents  and  examples  were  adduced, 
as  well  in  the  court-room  as  in  the  place  of  public  wor 
ship, —  indeed,  one  building  served  for  many  years  for  both 
uses,  —  are  selected  as  they  present  themselves  on  inci 
dental  occasions.  It  will  at  once  suggest  itself  to  us  that 
this  ready  and  off-hand  reference  to  the  Holy  Book  as 
sumes, "as  well  it  might,  a  perfect  familiarity  with  its  con 
tents.  The  Scriptures  were  put  to  a  very  exacting  test 
when  incidents  in  far-off  time  in  Oriental  lands,  and  human 
personalities  living  under  such  different  conditions  and  ex 
periences,  were  used  to  furnish  precedents  and  examples  in 
a  new  world  and  in  a  modern  century. 

Many  writers  upon  early  Massachusetts  history  have  — 
perhaps  naturally,  but  none  the  less  erroneously  —  assumed 
that  as  the  government  was  theocratical,  the  influence  of 
the  clergy  in  its  administration  was  supreme.  So  we  have 
been  made  familiar  with  sharp  and  censorious  accusations 
against "  the  elders  "  as  really  the  prime  movers  and  agents 
in  bigoted  legislation,  the  teachers  of  intolerance,  and  the 
instigators  of  persecution  against  those  who  challenged  or 

1  Records,  v.  144. 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  189 

opposed  their  dictation  and  authority.  These  assumptions 
and  charges  are  subject  to  very  serious  qualifications.  In 
the  sweep  and  positiveness  of  statement  and  censure  with 
which  they  have  often  been  uttered,  they  are  simply  untrue. 
A  careful  study  of  the  Colony  Records,  and  other  early 
original  materials  will  rectify  the  errors  in  them.  The 
elders  and  the  civil  magistrates  were  alike  concerned  in 
and  responsible  for,  and  were  of  one  mind  in  administering, 
the  theocratical  government.  Dudley,  Endicott,  and  Bel- 
lingham  needed  no  prompting  in  severity  from  the  elders. 
What  was  peculiar,  official,  or  personal  in  the  influence  of 
the  elders  will  soon  be  set  forth  from  the  Records.  What 
is  to  be  said  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  over-statements 
on  this  point  may  well  be  introduced  by  a  reference  to  a 
very  significant  fact,  which  those  who  have  thus  assigned 
to  the  early  clergy  of  Massachusetts  so  supreme  an  influ 
ence  appear  to  have  overlooked. 

The  most  potent  and  effective  of  all  the  changes  wrought 
by  the  Reformation  was  in  striking  at  and  breaking  the 
sway  of  the  priesthood,  and  in  securing  for  laymen  a  share 
in  everything  that  concerned  ecclesiastical  affairs  and  re 
ligious  institutions  and  discipline.  The  more  radical  and 
thorough  the  Reformation  was,  —  the  more  the  Protestant 
element  prevailed  at  s.ny  time  and  in  any  place,  —  we  find 
the  assertion  of  th'j  claims  and  influence  of  laymen  against 
the  clergy,  or  ^i  connection  with  them,  more  and  more 
resolute  and  secure.  This  characteristic  feature  of  all 
Protestantism  became  most  pronounced  in  that  form  of  it 
called  Puritanism.  Under  the  Roman,  or  Papal,  Church 
laympii  were  but  ciphers  or  puppets  in  the  hands  of  the 
priesthood.  Substantially  they  are  so  still  in  that  com 
munion.  They  are  not  recognized  in  any  council,  they 
have  no  share  in  discipline,  except  to  submit  to  it,  no  trea 
sury  reports  of  the  Church  are  made  to  or  audited  by  them, 
and  they  are  simply  the  sheep  of  the  fold  of  which  the 
priests  are  the  shepherds.  The  Reformation  broke  this 


190  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

exclusive  sway  and  prerogative  of  clericalism  and  brought 
the  laity  forward.  It  was  by  the  help  of  civil  potentates 
that  Luther  secured  a  hearing,  and  indeed  his  own  life 
and  opportunity,  and  prepared  the  way  for  his  supporters 
and  successors  to  grapple  with  the  powers  of  the  hierar 
chy.  In  the  English  Church,  with  a  layman  for  its  new 
head  and  Parliament  for  its  legislative  court,  the  absolute 
rule  of  sacerdotalism  was  crushed.  And  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  communion  in  the  United  States  carries  the 
agency  of  laymen  one  degree  further  than  in  the  mother 
Church  by  giving  them  a  place  on  all  committees,  in  all 
conventions,  and  in  all  legislation. 

It  would  have  been  a  most  extraordinary  exception  to 
the  working  of  this  radical  method  of  Protestantism  if  the 
magistrates  and  freemen  of  early  Massachusetts  had  put 
themselves  under  the  dictation  and  rule  of  their  "  elders." 
The  enterprise  and  scheme  of  colonization  were  inspired  by 
laymen,  and  their  ministers  were  called  in  to  be  their  ad 
visers  and  helpers.  From  first  to  last  this  was  the  relation 
here  between  those  two  classes  of  men.  The  ministers  were 
not  functionaries,  men  "  in  orders,"  with  an  official  charac 
ter  and  sanctity,  standing  qualified  to  occupy  and  serve  at 
pulpit  or  altar  as  there  might  be  a  place  for  them.  They 
were  chosen  and  put  in  office  by  the  people  of  each  congre 
gation,  and  were  dependent  upon  them  for  maintenance. 
In  every  case  their  influence  was  graduated  by  weight  of 
character,  by  the  qualities  of  their  manhood,  tfieir  learning 
and  abilities.  It  was  a  grave  question  among  ti  e  Puritans 
whether  a  minister  could  officiate  in  the  ordinances  to  any 
other  congregation  than  the  one  he  had  been  called  to  ^erve. 
By  the  Congregational  rule  the  teacher  or  pastor  was  s^m- 
ply  one  of  the  brethren  in  his  own  flock,  and  such  oni/ 
there.  In  all  church  discipline  he  was  subordinate  to  the 
congregation.  A  lay  brother  or  "  messenger  "  was  always 
sent  with  an  elder  to  a  council. 

When  John  Cotton  arrived  in  1633  and  was  instituted 


THE    BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  191 

as  "teacher"  in  the  church  of  Boston,  he  brought  with 
him  a  child  born  on  the  passage.  Though  Cotton,  under 
Episcopal  ordination,  had  served  as  a  vicar  for  a  score 
of  years,  he  explained  why  his  child  had  not  as  yet  been 
baptized :  — 

"  It  was  not  for  want  of  fresh  water  ;  for  he  held  sea  water 
would  have  served,  —  but  (1)  because  they  had  no  settled  con 
gregation  there  ;  (2)  because  a  minister  hath  no  power  to  give 
the  seals  but  in- his  own  congregation."1 

That  the  masters  should  have  put  themselves  under  the 
dictation  of  their  own  servants,  and  that  the  Puritan  laity 
should  have  succumbed  to  the  elders,  would  certainly  have 
been  inexplicable  had  it  been  true.  Those  who  have  thus 
apprehended  and  misrepresented  the  facts  have  been  mis 
led  by  not  allowing  for  the  perfect  sympathy  and  accord  in 
spirit,  judgment,  and  purpose  between  the  magistrates  and 
the  ministers.  Elder  Norton,  who  has  suffered  the  severest 
castigation  for  his  harsh  bigotry,  had  his  full  compeers  in 
Dudley,  Endicott,  and  Bellinghan.  The  two  earliest  suf 
ferers  by  the  discipline  of  the  Court  were  themselves  el 
ders,  —  Roger  Williams  and  John  Wheelwright,  —  and  no 
prestige  of  office  drew  to  them  help  from  their  brethren. 

Even  the  revered  Cotton  but  narrowly  escaped  that  dis 
cipline.  Hooker  removed  with  his  flock  from  Cambridge 
to  Connecticut  because  he  felt  himself  overshadowed.  We 
find  many  entries  on  the  Court  records  in  which  the  au 
thorities  rallied  respect  and  support  for  the  clergy.  Nor 
are  there  lacking  evidences  on  those  records  that  the 
elders  were  sometimes  reminded  that  on  some  subjects 
they  should  withhold  the  utterance  of  their  opinions  till 
asked  for  them,  and  that  while  their  advice  was  valued, 
dictation  did  not  become  them.  Cotton  did  not  arrive  till 
two  years  after  the  franchise  had  been  restricted  to  church 
members ;  so  he  was  not  responsible  for  that.  Soon  after 

1  Winthrop,  i.  110.  • 


192  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

he  came  he  found  some  division  and  contention  existing  as 
to  the  powers  of  deputies  and  magistrates,  and  that  the 
honored  Winthrop  was  under  a  cloud  as  arbitrary  in  his 
government.  Some  of  the  people  thought  it  was  time  for 
a  change  of  governor.  Cotton  ventured  to  interfere  with 
his  advice  in  a  sermon,  teaching  that  only  misconduct  in 
office  would  justify  dropping  such  a  faithful  Governor  as 
Winthrop ;  but  none  the  less  he  was  displaced  by  Dudley. 
The  Apostle  Eliot  complained  in  a  sermon  that  the  magis 
trates  had  made  a  peace  with  the  Pequot  Indians  in  1634 
without  consulting  the  people.  Three  elders  were  sent  to 
"deal"  with  him,  to  bring  him  "to  acknowledge  his  error," 
which  he  did  publicly.1  Winthrop  was  challenged  by  the 
elders  for  having  sent  some  papers  concerning  some  action 
of  the  Court  in  a  controversy,  to  be  published  in  England. 
He  reminded  them  that  in  its  own  province  the  Church 
was  subordinate  to  the  civil  power.2 

There  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  the 
clergy  was  very  great,  though  not  supreme.  This,  how 
ever,  did  not  constitute  the  theocratic  character  of  the 
government  which  attached  to  it,  as  has  been  said,  because 
its  statutes  were  those  of  Cod,  making  the  civil  magis 
trate  his  minister.  The  elders  had  influence  because  of 
their  accord  with  the  magistrates.  Had  there  been  collision 
between  them,  the  latter  would  have  prevailed.  The  func 
tion  of  the  elders,  whether  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
was  simply  explanatory  and  advisory.  They  were  con 
sulted  on  slight  as  well  as  on  serious  questions.  But  their 
weight  of  consequence  always  depended  on  one  condition, 
namely,  their  "  opening  the  rule  of  God's  Word  "  and  sus 
taining  advice  or  opinion  by  one  or  more  "  Scriptures  ; " 
that  is,  by  a  text.  The  magistrate,  feeling  himself  charged 
"  to  take  care  for  .the  things  of  God,"  had  clerical  func 
tions  of  his  own.  Of  course,  he  acknowledged  himself  as 
amenable  to  church  discipline  in  his  covenanted  relations 

i  Winthrop,  i.  151.  2  Ibid.,  i.  249. 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  193 

« 

buc  his  oath  of  office  as  a  magistrate  conferred  upon  him 
his  functions  in  the  theocracy. 

We  may  now  trace  briefly,  from  Winthrop  and  the  Rec 
ords,  how  the  elders  came  to  have  influence  in  civil  affairs, 
and  the  quality  and  effect  of  their  influence. 

Feb.  27,  1632,  the  Court  having  levied  a  tax  on  Water- 
town,  the  pastor  and  elder  of  the  church  advised  the 
people  to  resist  it ;  but  their  advice  was  overruled,  and 
the  tax  was  paid.  In  July,  1632,  u  the  congregation  at 
Boston  "  wrote  to  the  elders  and  brethren  of  the  churches 
of  Plymouth,  Salem,  etc.,  for  their  advice,  — "  Whether 
one  person  might  be  a  civil  magistrate  and  a  ruling  elder 
at  the  same  time  ? "  It  was  unanimously  decided  in  the 
negative.1  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  a  personal  differ 
ence  between  the  Governor  and  the  Deputy,  Dudley, 
was  "  ended  "  by  the  mediation  of  the  elders.2  February, 
1633,  three  of  the  elders,  with  the  Governor  and  four  mag 
istrates,  went  to  Nantasket  to  confer  as  to  the  building  of 
a  fort.3  Sept.  27,  1633,  the  Governor  and  assistants  called 
all  the  elders  to  consider  where  John  Cotton  should  settle.4 
Jan.  7, 1634,  the  Governor  and  magistrates  asked  for  the 
views  of  the  elders  on  the  denial  by  Roger  Williams  of  the 
validity  of  their  Patent.5  July  19, 1634,  elders  and  magis 
trates  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  confer  as  to  rights 
of  trade  at  Kennebec.6  The  next  month  "  diverse  of  the 
ministers "  take  part  in  the  discussion  about  the  fort  on 
Castle  Island.7  In  February,  1635,  the  elders  were  sum 
moned  to  advise  the  magistrates  as  to  what  should  be  done 
under  the  apprehension  lest  a  u  General  Governor"  should 
be  sent  over  to  the  Colonies.  The  advice,  founded  on  their 
Patent,  was  that  he  should  not  be  received.8  In  each  and 
all  of  the  successive  cases  that  are  to  come  before  us,  in 
which  the  Court  inflicted  its  discipline  and  its  penalties 

1  Winthrop,  i.  81.  2  Ibid.,  i.  89.  8  Ibid.,  i.  99. 

*  Ibid.,  i.  112.  5  Ibid.,  i.  122.  6  Ibid.,  i.  136. 

7  Ibid.,  i.  137.  8  Ibid.,  i.  154. 

13 


194  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

upon  individuals  or  companies  regarded  as  offenders,  we 
shall  meet  with  the  elders  in  the  same  capacity,  never  as 
initiating  measures,  but  simply  as  consulted  for  opinions 
or  advice. 

Special  reference  should  be  made  to  what  the  Records 
contain  about  the  position  of  the  elders  in  the  preparation 
of  the  laws  of  the  Colony.  The  Charter  gave  the  Company 
authority  — 

"  To  make  laws  and  ordinances  for  the  good  and  welfare  of  the 
said  Company,  and  for  the  government  and  ordering  of  the  said 
lands  and  plantation,  and  the  people  inhabiting  and  to  inhabit  the 
same,  as  to  them  from  time  to  time  shall  be  thought  meete.  So 
as  such  lawes  and  ordinances  be  not  contrary  or  repugnant  to  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  realme  of  England." 

This  exercise  of  legislative  powers  under  novel  and  exi 
gent  circumstances  proved  to  be  a  task  which  required 
the  utmost  abilities,  judgment,  and  prescience  of  men 
none  of  whom  had  the  special  professional  training  for  the 
work.  Precedents  in  many  important  matters  were  wholly 
wanting.  The  composition  of  the  constituency,  intended 
to  be  homogeneous,  became  rapidly  heterogeneous.  The 
original  membership  of  the  Company  was  strictly  of  pro 
prietors,  stockholders,  whose  rights  and  interests  were 
first  to  be  protected.  All  others  among  them  were  their 
servants,  subordinates,  or  dependents.  All  whom  they 
should  admit  as  new  members,  "  freemen,"  holding  the 
franchise,  would  have  votes  affecting  the  proprietary 
rights  of  the  original  stockholders,  who  had  transferred 
tlieir  estates  from  the  Old  World  to  the  wilderness.  The 
risks  of  dissension  would  be  imminent,  and  the  conse 
quences  of  it  would  be  disastrous.  Their  code  of  laws,  when 
perfected,  always  excepting  those  of  a  theocratical  char 
acter,  was  substantially  conformed  to  natural  justice  and 
humanity,  with  fewer  capital  offences  than  the  code  of 
England.  Indeed,  as  a  reader  goes  over  their  records  he 


THE   BIBLICAL  COMMONWEALTH.  195 

will  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  considerateness  — 
we  may  even  say  the  tenderness  —  often  apparent  in  the 
treatment  of  the  unfortunate,  the  infirm,  the  ignorant,  the 
penitent,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and  the  victims  of 
calamity.  Severity  there  is,  enough  of  it,  but  often  tem 
pered  with  mercy.  Sedition  and  heresy  were  the  especial 
dread  of  the  magistracy,  and  any  contempt  or  defiance  of 
their  authority  was  treated  with  a  resoluteness  which  looks 
like  vengefulness  ;  but  there  was  a  long  delay  and  many 
tentative  efforts  in  this  work  of  legislation.  Nor  was  it 
strange  that  this  delay  should  have  provoked  restlessness 
and  discontent  and  murmuring  among  the  people.  It 
seemed  for  a  time  as  if  the  rule  was  to  be  arbitrary,  de 
pending  upon  the  judgment  and  will,  as  each  case  arose, 
of  the  magistrates.  The  first  relief  was  found  in  a  body 
of  deputies,  having  the  negative  power,  made  up  of  repre 
sentatives  of  the  freemen  in  the  towns.  We  find  under 
date  of  March,  1634-5,  intimations  of  discontent.1  The 
Governor,  deputy,  and  two  other  magistrates,  without  any 
elder,  rwere  charged  as  a  committee  with  the  considera 
tion  of  the  subject.  In  May,  1636, 2  the  Governor  (Vane), 
the  deputy,  three  magistrates,  and  now  for  the.  first  time 
three  elders  were  intrusted  with  the  work  ;  but  nothing 
came  of  this.  We  learn  from  Winthrop 3  that  Cotton,  in 
behalf  of  this  committee,  had  prepared  something  called 
"  Moses  his  Judicials."  Perhaps  his  friend  Vane  aided 
him  in  this ;  but  no  notice  is  taken  of  it  in  the  Court 
Records.  A  manuscript,  found  in  Cotton's  study  after  his 
death,  was  printed  in  London  in  1641,  and  in  a  fuller  form 
in  1655.  In  the  earlier  form  of  them  it  is  said,  —  "  as  they 
are  now  established ; "  but  they  never  were  established.4 
Each  law  is  supported  by  texts  from  both  Testaments,  and 
so  not  confined  to  Moses.  There  are  eighteen  capital 

i  Winthrop,  i.  137,  160.  2  Records,  i.  174. 

8  Winthrop,  i.  202. 

*  This  code  is  reprinted  in  1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  v.  173. 


196  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

offences,  and  six  more  which  have  an  alternative  of  death 
or  banishment ;  much  fewer  than  by  the  English  code  at 
that  time.  The  abstract  is  ratified  by  the  Scripture  quo 
tation,  "  The  Lord  is  our  Judge,  the  Lord  is  our  Lawgiver, 
the  Lord  is  our  King  :  he  will  save  us."  1  Cotton's  object 
was  "  to  show  the  complete  sufficiency  of  the  Word  of  God 
alone  to  direct  his  people  in  judgment  of  all  causes,  both 
civil  and  criminal." 

In  two  lines  of  his  fine  sonnet  on  Sir  Henry  •  Vane, 
Milton  says  :  — 

"  Both  spiritual  power  and  civil,  what  each  means, 
What  severs  each,  thou  hast  learned,  which  few  have  done." 

No  other  magistrate  than  Vane  had  then  learned  it.  Cot 
ton  and  the  other  elders  certainly  had  not ;  but  this  does 
not  prove  that  the  latter  were  the  legislators  of  the  Col 
ony,  or  its  ruling  spirits  in  bigotry  and  severity. 

A  singular  device  toward  legislation  was  proposed  by 
the  Court,  March  12,  163  J.  The  order  recites :  - 

"  For  the  well  ordering  of  these  plantations  now  in  the  begin 
ning  thereof,  it  having  bene  found  by  the  little  time  of  experience 
wee  have  heare  had,  that  the  want  of  written  lawes  have  put  the 
Court  into  many  doubts  and  much  trouble  in  many  perticuler 
cases,  this  Court  hath  therefore  ordered  that  the  freemen  of  every 
towne  (or  some  part  thereof  chosen  by  the  rest)  within  this  juris 
diction  shall  assemble  together  in  their  severall  townes,  and  col 
lect  the  heads  of  such  necessary  and  fundamental  1  lawes  as  may 
bee  sutable  to  the  times  and  places  whear  God  by  his  providence 
hath  cast  us,"  etc.2 

These  "  heads "  when  collected  were  to  be  sent  to  the 
Governor,  and  were  by  him  to  be  laid  before  the  Council, 
attended  by  three  elders  of  churches,  to  be  digested  into  "  a 
compendious  abridgement,"  and  to  be  laid  before  the  next 
General  Court  for  approbation  or  rejection.  Winthrop 

1  Isaiah  xxxiii.  22.  2  Records,  i.  222. 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  197 

explains  the  delay  in  this  matter  by  offering  two  reasons 
for  it,  showing  why  "  most  of  the  magistrates  and  some  of 
the  elders  were  not  very  forward  "  in  it.  One  was  a  want 
of  sufficient  experience  of  the  nature  and  disposition  of  the 
people,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  they 
conceiving  that  the  fittest  laws  would  suggest  themselves 
as  occasions  arose  pro  re  nata,  as  the  laws  of  England  and 
other  States  had  grown.  The  other  reason  was,  that  as  by 
their  charter  they  could  make  no  laws  repugnant  to  those 
*of  England,  and  nevertheless  would  be  compelled  by  the 
necessity  of  the  case  to  do  so,  "  to  raise  up  laws  by  prac 
tice  and  custom  had  been  no  transgression,  as  in  our 
church  discipline  and  in  matters  of  marriage."  So  "  two 
models  "  were  digested  and  sent  to  the  several  towns.1 
The  Court  worked  over  the  models  in  November,  1639  ; 
and  afterward  four  magistrates  and  two  deputies  were 
directed  to  inspect  them  and  send  them  to  the  towns  for 
the  consideration  of  the  elders  and  freemen.  The  result 
was  a  "  Breviate  of  the  Liberties,"  etc.,  finally  digested  by 
Nathaniel  Ward,  and  voted  by  the  Court  in  1641  "  to  stand 
in  force."  2  Ward,  minister  of  Ipswich,  had  been  a  min 
ister  in  England,  and  previously  a  student  and  practitioner 
of  the  common  law.  The  "  Breviate  "  contained  a  hundred 
laws.  After  the  original  pamphlet  had  long  been  lost  to 
sight  here,  a  copy  of  it  accidentally  came  to  light  in  the 
Boston  Athenasum.3  The  laws  were  first  put  in  print  in 
the  Colony  in  1649.  There  are  twelve  capital  offences 
enforced  by  Old  Testament  texts. 

From  this  brief  review  it  appears  that  the  elders 
were  not  the  prime  legislators  of  the  Colony.  It  would 
have  been  strange  if  in  the  Biblical  commonwealth,  where 
Scripture  in  precedent  and  authority  was  to  be  so  closely 
followed,  they  had  not  been  called  in  as  interpreters  and 

1  Winthrop,  i.  323. 

2  Records,  i.  292,  320,  340,  344,  346,  and  Winthrop,  ii.  55. 

3  It  is  reprinted  in  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  viii.,  1843. 


198  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

advisers.  It  was  in  their  discourses  and  conferences  that 
they  were  to  win  and  exert  their  influence.  As  has  been 
already  shown,  that  influence  was  as  little  as  possible  offi 
cial.  They  were  but  brethren.  It  would  not  be  right  to 
assign  to  them  the  chief  responsibility  for  the  ghostly  rule 
of  the  Colony.  Mr.  Pynchon,  magistrate  of  Springfield,  a 
man  of  marked  ability,  had  written  and  procured  to  be 
printed  in  England,  a  work  on  the  "  Atonement,"  esteemed 
heretical.  On  the  arrival  here  of  copies  the  Court  took 
alarm,  dealt  by  warning  with  the  author,  and  committed 
the  book  to  Mr.  Norton,  to  be  answered  by  him,  also  for 
printing  in  England.  But  Scripture  texts  were  the  weapons 
of  that  conflict.  Pynchon  consented  to  some  concessions, 
not  however  satisfactory,  and  his  book  was  burned  in  the 
market-place,  as  were  many  other  heretical  works.  A 
further  reference  to  this  matter  will  be  made  in  another 
connection. 

We  have  thus  before  us  the  materials  for  an  intelligent 
view  of  the  sort  of  commonwealth  which  the  founders  of 
Massachusetts  established  after  a  Scriptural  model,  and 
which  has  received  the  title  of  a  Theocracy.  The  term 
"  Commonwealth,"  with  its  synonym  of  State,  was  a  fa 
vorite  one  with  them,  boldly,  even  Tauntingly,  as  well  as 
tenderly,  used  here  before  it  was  freely  current  in  England 
in  Cromwell's  time.  The  King's  Commissioners  sent  here 
in  1665,  to  reckon  with  the  Colonists,  and  Andros  after 
ward,  had  a  special  spite  to  that  word,  and  demanded  its 
disuse  and  expurgation,  making  it  all  the  more  dear  to  its 
v  citizens  here. 

/       The  one  prime,  all-essential,  and  sufficient  quality  of  a 

I    theocracy,  adopted  as  the  form  of  an  earthly  government, 

was  that  the  civil  power  should  be  guided  in  its  exercise 

I    by  religion  and  by  religious  ordinances.     The  magistrate 

\   came  in  with  his  efforts  and  help,  to  put  into  force  what 

\  he  regarded  as  the  will  and  purpose  of  God.    To  effect  this, 

\not  only  the  magistrate  himself  but  those  who  put  him  in 


THE   BIBLICAL   COMMONWEALTH.  199 

office  and  gave  him  power  must  be  in  covenant  with  God 
and  have  exclusive  authority.  How  this  critical  condition 
was  sought  to  be  insured  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter. 
The  religious  loyalty  of  the  magistrates  and  their  electors 
being  thus  covenanted,  there  would  remain  the  party  out 
side  to  be  governed,  —  those  who  were  not  freemen,  who 
could  not  hold  nor  elect  to  office.  These,  however,  were 
to  be  brought  under  the  same  theocratic  rule  with  the  cov 
enanted.  How  was  this  to  be  secured  ?  It  might  be  hoped 
that  when  the  magistrates  and  their  way  of  rule  were  set 
before  the  people  as  representing  the  sovereign  law  and 
will  of  God,  the  people  would  even  more  willingly  recognize 
their  obligations  by  loyal  obedience  than  they  would  to 
any  human  statutes  of  government.  If  it  should  be  found, 
as  it  was  found,  that  numbers  of  the  people  would  not  ac 
cept  the  magistrates  and  their  rule  as  representing  God 
to  them,  they  were  to  be  constrained,  if  not  to  obedience 
then  to  compliance.  While  the  covenanted  willingly  sus 
tained  a  ministry  and  waited  on  worship  and  ordinances, 
the  uncovenanted  must  be  compelled  to  do  the  same  by 
exactions  and  penalties  for  neglect.  The  rule  found  its 
way  into  private  homes,  and  even  sought  to  intermeddle 
with  private  hearts. 


VI. 

CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP  AND  THE  FRANCHISE. 

A  BIBLICAL  commonwealth  must  needs  have  a  Biblical 
rule  and  qualification  for  constituting  and  admitting  mem 
bership  or  citizenship  in  it.  How  was  this  to  be  effected  ? 
While  "  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  " 
was  simply  a  corporation  for  trade,  its  members  being 
joint-stock  proprietors,  partners  in  the  ownership  by  shares, 
liable  to  assessments  and  entitled  to  dividends,  the  usual 
rules  of  all  such  secular  and  business  enterprises  were  all 
that  was  needed  in  its  administration.  Selfish  interests 
might  be  trusted,  as  they  would  be  sure  to  have  sway.  The 
officers  and  existing  members  at  any  time  might  have  re 
gard  for  integrity  of  character  and  perhaps  for  desirable 
qualities  of  companionship  in  the  admission  of  new  asso 
ciates,  but  would  not  necessarily  or  even  naturally  re 
quire  anything  of  accordance  in  religious  opinions  and 
sympathies.  But  when  that  mercantile  company  was  to  be 
transformed  to  a  body  for  legislating  for  and  administering 
a  government  which  was  to  plant  a  commonwealth  in  a 
wilderness  across  the  seas,  the  qualifications  of  member 
ship,  of  influence  and  authority  in  it,  would  at  once  become 
matters  of  supreme  importance. 

The  Charter  gave  to  the  Company  liberty  to  admit  new 
members,  called  "  freemen  "  of  the  Company.  No  method, 
conditions,  or  qualifications  were  prescribed  for  conferring 
this  privilege.  For  all  that  appears,  the  proprietors  then 
constituting  the  corporation  might,  had  they  chosen  to  do 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP    AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  201 

so,  have  resolved  not  to  enlarge  their  number,  or  have 
made  any  secular  conditions  of  a  reasonable  character 
which  they  approved,  requisite  in  the  case.  But  we  have 
seen  that  from  the  first  suggestion  in  England  of  a  purpose 
for  transferring  the  patent  and  government  of  the  Com 
pany  to  be  set  up  here,  there  came  into  its  business  meet 
ings  the  minglings  and  influence  of  religious  sentiment, 
and  a  reference  to  religious  objects.  The  two  London 
ministers  who  were  invited  into  the  meetings  to  consecrate 
them  by  prayer  seem  to  have  been  made  freemen  of  the 
Company  for  that  sole  purpose,  without  possessing  or  pur 
chasing  any  shares  .in  its  property.  As  soon  as  the  Com 
pany  after  its  arrival  here  set  up  the  local  government,  it 
imposed  a  condition  of  a  very  exacting  and  restrictive  char 
acter  for  the  enjoyment  of  its  franchise  by  new  members. 
It  was  original  too,  it  never,  in  its  express  terms,  having 
been  before  required  in  any  civil  State.  The  condition 
was  in  full  organic  consistency  with  the  scheme  "of  a 
Biblical  "commonwealth,  and  indeed  was  vitally  requisite 
to  it.  We  are  uninformed  as  to  any  discussions,  confer 
ences,  or  understandings  between  the  leaders  of  the  en 
terprise  which  would  enlighten  us  as  to  their  maturing 
and  privately  agreeing  upon  the  new  condition  to  be  im 
posed  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  franchise.  As  we  read  it 
in  the  record  it  comes  upon  us  as  a  complete  surprise ; 
and  yet  it  was  of  so  peculiar  and  novel  a  character  that 
we  can  hardly  conceive  of  its  adoption  without  some  pre 
vious  confidential  concert  among  the  leaders. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  General  Court  in  Boston,  May  18, 
1631,  several  orders  were  passed,  as  is  said,  "  with  full 
consent  of  all  the  commons  then  present."  If  this  covers 
all  the  orders  there  set  down,  then  all  the  freemen  at  that 
Court  agreed  upon  the  following :  "•  To  the  end  the  body  of 
the  commons  may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,  it 
was  likewise  ordered  and  agreed  that  for  time  to  come  noe 
man  shalbe  admitted  to  the  freedome  of  this  body  polli- 


202  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

ticke  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches 
within  the  limits  of  the  same."  1  The  operation  of  that 
order  is  prospective,  for  application  in  the  future.  We  are 
not  informed  as  to  the  number  of  those  already  freemen 
who  voted  upon  it,  nor  whether  all  of  them  were  at  the 
time  church  members.  If  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  any  of 
them  at  the  time  were  not  in  church  covenant,  and  as  noth 
ing  is  said  of  their  being  for  that  reason  disfranchised,  then 
it  is  possible  that  some  of  them  might  have  retained  their 
privilege  without  coming  under  the  order.  It  is  to  be  ob 
served  that  though  thenceforward  no  one  could  become 
free  of  the  company  without  being  a  church  member,  it 
did  not  follow  that  every  church  member  was  a  freeman. 
On  the  contrary,  as  we  shall  learn  from  a  subsequent  order 
of  the  Court,  it  undertook  to  deal  with  some  church  mem 
bers  who,  for  reasons  assigned,  refused  to  take  their  free 
dom.  There  were  at  the  date  of  the  order  four  organized 
churches  in  the  jurisdiction  ;  namely,  at  Salem,  Dorchester, 
Boston,  and  Watertown,  the  Boston  church  having  been 
previously  instituted  in  Charlestown.  It  may  have  been 
that  some  freemen  considered  their  previous  relation  to 
the  Church  of  England  as  constituting  them  church  mem 
bers  ;  but  henceforward  membership  of  a  church  within  the 
limits  of  this  jurisdiction  was  imperative.  At  a  previous 
Court,  in  October,  1630,  one  hundred  and  nine  persons  had 
sent  in  an  application  to  be  made  freemen.  This  being 
before  the  order  for  church  membership  had  been  passed, 
such  of  them  as  had  not  been  accepted  at  the  time  had  to 
come  under  the  new  condition,  and  their  names  appear  in 
subsequent  years  as  obtaining  the  franchise.  In  May,  1634, 
it  was  agreed  "  that  none  but  the  General  Court  hath  power 
to  chuse  and  admitt  freemen."  2  At  that  Court  the  terms 
of  "  the  Oath  of  a  Freeman,"  as  previously  written,  were 
slightly  modified.  By  this  the  freeman  acknowledged  him 
self  a  subject  to  the  government,  and  swore  "  by  the  greate 

1  Kecords,  i.  87.  2  Ibid.,  i.  117. 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP    AND    THE    FRANCHISE.  203 

and  dreadfull  name  of  the  everlyveing  God,"  to  be  true 
and  faithful  to  it  in  obedience  and  support,  with  person  and 
estate,  to  maintain  its  liberties  and  privileges,  to  plot  or 
consent  to  no  injuries  against  it,  and  to  vote  by  conscience 
for  the  "  publique  weale  of  the  body." 

As  no  complete  census  of  the  inhabitants  was  taken  in 
the  Colony,  we  are  at  a  loss  for  anything  more  than  an 
approximate  estimate  of  the  proportion  of  numbers  which 
those  who  were  both  freemen  and  church  members  bore  to 
the  adult  males  of  the  Colony.  Up  to  June  2,  1641,  the 
names  of  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-two  persons  are  given 
as  having  taken  the  freeman's  oath.  Four  hundred  and 
eighty-one  more  had  done  so  up  to  May,  1649,  and  from 
that  date  to  1660,  two  hundred  and  one.  Up  to  1674,  six 
hundred  and  fifty-three  new  freemen  had  been  added  to 
the  list,  some,  however,  coming  in  by  a  modification  of 
the  previous  requisition,  to  be  mentioned  further  on.  The 
Court  lists  thus  give  to  that  last  date  the  names  of  two 
thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-seven  men,  sworn  into 
citizenship.  As  has  been  intimated,  the  number  of  cove 
nanted  church  members  was  larger.  Steadily  onward  from 
the  enactment  of  this  covenant  test  for  the  franchise  to 
the  close  of  the  rigid  Puritan  rule,  the  male  citizens  de 
prived  of  the  full  right  of  citizenship  were  increasing  in 
the  majority  outnumbering  those  who  enjoyed  it.  Prob 
ably  the  estimate  was  correct  which  gave  the  proportions 
between  them  as  of  five  to  one. 

Thus  was  defined  and  enforced  the  fundamental,  organic 
constitution  of  the  Puritan  State.  The  founders  must  be 
admitted  to  have  exercised  a  keen  discernment  and  a  wise 
foresight  in  judging  this  condition  for  full  citizenship  to  be 
a  prime  essential  in  the  sort  of  commonwealth  which  they 
proposed  to  establish.  They  adopted  it  as  an  axiom  that 
an  orderly,  peaceful,  and  secure  government  must  be 
planted  on  the  foundation  of  religion.  Its  laws  and  stat 
utes  were  to  be  those  of  God,  revealed  and  committed  to 


204  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Christian  magistrates  for  administration.  These  magis 
trates  were  to  be  put  in  office  by  electors  from  the  people. 
Those  electors  must  be  under  covenant  in  exercising  their 
trust.  We  must  now  study  the  terms  of  the  covenant 
which  qualified  them. 

A  formidable  Remonstrance  and  Petition  addressed  to 
the  General  Court  in  1646,  by  Robert  Child  and  six  others, 
complaining  of  their  exclusion  from  church  privileges, 
from  the  franchise,  and  other  grievances,  while  still  being 
taxed,  drew  forth  a  very  elaborate  Declaration  from  the 
Court.  In  this  document  a  parallelism  is  instituted  be 
tween  Magna  Charta  and  the  common  laws  of  England  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  "  Fundamentalls  of  the  Massachusetts  " 
on  the  other.  In  the  former  it  appeared  that  the  people 
were  represented  in  the  Parliament  by  their  deputies : 
"  These  deputies  are  chosen  for  all  the  people,  but  not  by 
all  the  people  ;  but  only  by  certain  frcehouldcrs  and  free 
burgers,  in  shires  and  corporations."  In  accord  with  this 
the  Court  pleads :  "  Our  deputies  are  chosen  for  all  the 
people,  but  not  by  all  the  people,  but  only  by  the  companie 
of  freemen,  according  to  our  charter."  So  the  acts  of  Par 
liament  "  bind  all  the  people,  as  well  forraigne  as  free 
borne ;  as  well  such  as  have  no  libertie  in  the  election  of 
the  members  of  the  Court  as  the  f  reehoulders  who  choose 
them."  Parallel  with  this :  "  The  acts  of  this  generall 
court  do  bind  all  within  this  jurisdiction,  as  well  no-freemen 
who  have  no  vote  in  election  of  the  members  of  the  court 
as  the  freemen  who  doe  choose  them.  By  the  Charter."  l 

What  might  be  the  coveted,  and  what  certainly  was  the 
responsible  privilege  of  citizenship  by  the  franchise,  as 
the  theocratical  equivalent  for  being  made  a  freeman  of  the 
Company,  being  thus  conditioned  on  church  membership, 
we  must  inform  ourselves  clearly  upon  the  exactions  and 
method  by  which  that  religious  relation  was  obtained. 
What  were  the  terms  and  requisitions  of  church  member- 

i  Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  202-204. 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP    AND    THE    FRANCHISE.  205 

ship,  the  process  for  securing  it,  the  responsibilities  at 
tached  to  it,  and  the  consequences  involved  in  it  ?  It  is  in 
what  relates  to  this  matter  that  we  have  to  recognize  the 
fundamental,  the  vital,  radical,  arid  most  distinguishing 
qualities  and  features  of  the  Biblical  commonwealth.  Here 
it  made  its  widest  and  deepest  variance  with  the  Roman 
and  Anglican  churches,  through  which  it  drew  its  lineage. 
Not  even  in  its  rejection  of  the  theories  of  prelacy,  ritual 
istic  practices,  and  the  ceremonials  and  observances  of 
medievalism,  did  English  dissent  alike  in  its  forms  of 
Puritanism  and  Nonconformity  come  so  sharply  into  pro 
test,  and  into  an  earnest  and  resolute  course  of  its  own,  as 
in  its  views  and  methods  of  "  church  membership."  In 
tfte  English  Church,  as. developed  from  the  Reformation, 
as  previously  in  the  Roman  Church,  church  membership 
W;as  substantially  the  birthright  to  which  the  children  of 
English  parents  acceded,  by  very  simple  processes,  to  be 
followed  as  a  matter  of  course.  Whatever  might  have 
been  expected  or  desired  in  each  case  in  which  church 
membership  was  reached  by  these  processes,  they  might  or 
might  not  require  or  imply  any  profound  heart  experience 
of  religion,  as  reaching  the  springs  of  character  and  conse 
crating  life.  Each  child  was  to  be  baptized  in  its  earliest 
infancy.  And  so  exigent  was  the  necessity  for  this,  —  con 
sidering  what  a  peril  for  the  immortal  destiny  of  the  child 
was  suspended  upon  it,  —  that,  in  an  emergency,  the  rite 
might  be  validly  performed  by  anybody  repeating  the  Scrip 
ture  formula.  Then,  as  the  growing  child  was  entering 
into  the  second  decade  of  its  years,  after  rudimentary  in 
struction  in  the  Creed,  the  Catechism,  and  the  Command 
ments,  the  bishop,  by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  and  a 
blessing,  made  it  a  full  member  of  the  Church  by  "  con 
firmation."  Henceforward  it  was  not  only  privileged  but 
obliged  to  partake  of  the  holiest  of  the  sacraments.  It 
was  by  these  methods  —  the  baptism  of  unconscious  in 
fants,  and  the  qualification  of  those  who  were  in  the  second 


206  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

decade  of  their  lives  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper  — 
that  the  people  of  any  country  of  Christendom  were  to 
grow  into  and  to  perpetuate  through  their  generations  the 
Christian  Church.  A  nation  became  in  this  way  entitled 
to  be  called  Christian,  as  distinct  from  heathen. 

In  sharpest  variance  with  this  usage,  and  in  profound 
disapproval  of  it,  were  the  conscientious  choice  and  the 
searching  tests  of  Puritanism.  This  easy,  miscellaneous, 
uncertified,  and  indiscriminating  method  of  constituting  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  Christ  was  to  them  without  war 
rant,  reason,  or  blessing ;  indeed,  it  trespassed  within  the 
borders  of  sacrilege  and  impiety.  The  risks  to  constancy 
and  fidelity  in  the  Christian  discipleship  were  many  and 
grievous  enough  for  those  who  had  assumed  its  obligations 
after  the  best  preliminary  discipline  of  heart  and  con 
science.  Entered  on  without  these,  failure,  reproach,  and 
condemnation  were  likely  to  follow.  So  the  phrase  fondly 
used  by  the  Puritans,  that  "  the  Church  of  Christ  consisted 
of  Saints,"  elected,  sealed,  and  covenanted,  one  by  one,  with 
him,  and  with  each  other,  expressed  the  stretch  of  their 
divergence  from  the  usage  of  the  English  Church.  They 
took  nothing  for  granted  as  to  the  Christian  standing  even 
of  a  child  born  of  Christian  parents,  except  in  expecting 
that  such  parents  would  give  their  child  a  Christian  nur 
ture.  They  would  not  baptize  a  child  unless  at  least  one 
of  its  parents  was  in  covenant  with  a  church.  The  method 
approved  by  them  for  admitting  a  new  member  of  either 
sex  into  their  church  fellowship  was  as  follows  :  The  pas 
tor,  conversant  with  his  flock,  was  to  maintain  a  faithful 
oversight  of  it,  as  well  of  those  who  merely  attended  upon 
exercises  of  worship,  as  of  those  who  participated  in  the 
"  ordinances."  This  oversight  was  close  and  inquisitive 
in  their  homes,  and  was  followed  with  prayers  and  lessons 
in  the  Catechism  for  children  in  the  schools.  The  church 
and  pastor  recognized  a  measure  of  responsibility  to  bap 
tized  children  as  having  been  already  initiated  or  pledged 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND    THE   FRANCHISE.  207 

to  a  membership  to  be  fully  claimed  or  enjoyed  when  they 
should  grow  to  mature  years.  Those  for  whom  pastor, 
teacher,  deacons,  and  the  more  zealous  of  the  brethren 
and  sisters  were  most  concerned,  were  such  as,  not  yet  in 
covenant,  gave  evidence  "  in  a  godly  walk,"  in  conversation, 
habit,  and  tone  of  life,  of  being  under  sacred  exercise  of 
heart  and  spirit,  with  a  measure  of  regenerated  experience. 
New  disciples,  then,  now,  and  always,  were  to  offer  them 
selves  one  by  one,  individually,  under  conviction  of  heart, 
as  did  the  first  disciples  of  Christ,  Jew  or  Gentile.  It  was 
for  each  one  under  such  conviction  to  make  it  known,  or 
to  avow  it  under  appeal  or  question.  Then  followed  a  con 
ference  with  an  officer  of  the  church,  with  an  examination 
of  heart,  conscience,  and  experience  at  the  stage  which  it 
had  reached.  If  this  was  satisfactory,  the  candidate  was 
"  propounded "  before  the  whole  assembled  congregation 
for  admission  into  the  select  body,  —  "the  Church."  The 
ordeal  at  this  stage  of  it  was  a  severe  one,  for  neighbors 
were  free  to  raise  objections,  to  ask  questions  looking  back 
through  the  life  of  the  candidate  for  whatever  might  need 
redress  or  repentance.  Our  older  church  records  are  very 
communicative  about  some  subjects,  the  rehearsal  of  which 
is  not  now  viewed  as  edifying.  An  interval,  generally  a 
month,  was  allowed  to  transpire  for  the  full  satisfaction  of 
all  parties.  Then,  again,  in  full  congregation,  the  candi 
dates  at  the  call  of  the  pastor,  rising  from  their  seats,  gave 
an  oral  or  written  relation  of  their  religious  experience.1 
This  might  be  brief  and  general,  from  the  modest  or  the 
diffident ;  but  fulness  and  detail  were  preferred  by  hearers 
till  they  had  become  wonted  to  such  rehearsals.  We  can 
well  appreciate  the  severity  of  this  ordeal  to  those  of  a 
tender,  delicate,  and  shrinking  purity  of  spirit,  as  listeners 

1  This  requisition  from  the  candidate  was  made  and  justified  by  Scripture 
texts,  as  Matthew  iii.  6,  xvi.  16-18  ;  Acts  viii.  37  ;  1  Peter  iii.  15.  The 
French  and  the  Dutch  reformed  churches,  as  also  the  English  Presbyterians, 
required  similar  utterances  from  candidates  for  fellowship. 


208  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

waited  for  the  revealings  of  the  holiest  privacy.  And  in 
contrast  with  these  were  the  volubility  and  confidence  of 
some,  who  knew  that  they  had  the  most,  or  seemed  to  feel 
that  they  had  the  least,  for  which  to  repent  or  be  ashamed. 
It  may  be  interposed  here  that  the  fourth  Congregational 
Church  gathered  in  Boston,  the  "  Brattle  Street,"  in  1700, 
which  startled  and  shocked  its  elder  sisters  by  its  "  inno 
vations,"  that  had  to  be  justified  and  defended,  made  the 
most  venturesome  and  revolutionary  of  them  in  dispensing 
with  this  public  rehearsal  of  the  private  religious  experi 
ence  of  candidates  before  the  congregation. 

The  ordeal  being  passed,  the  new  member  was  received 
into  full  covenant,  henceforward,  through  conflicts,  resolves, 
and  helps  of  sympathy,  to  be  one  of  the  elect  in  privileges 
and  responsibilities.  Nor  were  the  obligations  of  the  mem 
ber  afterward  merely  individual  and  personal.  He  was  un 
der  religious  bonds  to  the  brethren  and  sisters  of  the  fold. 
He  came,  as  the  phrase  was,  under  "  the  watch  and  ward  of 
the  church."  Liable  at  any  time  to  be  challenged  and  re 
buked  for  backsliding  and  lukewarmness,  he  must  also  take 
part  in  the  frequent  meetings  for  the  discipline  of  others. 

Of  members  thus  covenanted  and  sealed,  —  the  men 
among  them,  —  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  "  by  a 
general  consent"  of  members  covenanted  and  uncove- 
nanted,  present  in  1631,  decided  that  they  alone  hencefor 
ward  should  have  the  franchise  for  the  administration  of 
all  civil  affairs.  Governor,  magistrates,  and  the  deputies 
or  representatives  of  the  people  in  all  the  towns  were  to  be 
"  in  covenant  with  one  of  the  churches."  The  intent  was, 
"  that  the  body  of  the  commons  may  be  preserved  of  honest 
and  good  men."  The  intent  was  fair,  noble,  and  wise.  No 
State  could  plant  itself  on  a  more  righteous  or  hopeful  basis. 
Had  the  churches  really  been  composed  of  "  saints,"  even 
though  not  including  exhaustively  all  of  that  rare  class 
in  the  community,  the  experiment  might  have  triumphed. 
Fifty,  forty,  thirty,  twenty,  even  ten  righteous  men  might 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP   AND    THE   FRANCHISE.  209 

save  a  city.1  The  difficulty  was  in  finding  them  so  gifted 
in  wisdom  and  policy  that  they  could  exercise  mastery  over 
sinners,  —  which  are  really  more  prope'r,  and  certainly 
more  abundant  material  for  a  church  than  are  "  saints." 
But  the  method  which  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  chose 
for  realizing  its  wise  and  noble  intent  was  wrecked  by  two 
fatal  errors.  It  excluded  from  the  franchise,  as  not  in 
covenant,  some  of  the  most  righteous,  exemplary,  wise,  and 
serviceable  men ;  and  it  let  into  the  fold  some  of  the  un 
worthy,  the  unwise,  and  the  hypocritical.  The  terms  of  the 
covenant,  the  doctrinal  system  on  which  it  was  based,  and 
the  character  of  the  "  religious  experience  "  which  it  ex 
acted,  repelled  many  whose  opinions,  convictions,  tone  of 
character,  and  real  religious  principles  were  not  accordant 
with  it.  Warnings  against  parting  with  one's  private  lib 
erty  of  thinking,  and  the  uttering  of  honest  opinions,  ob 
servances,  and  attendance  upon  religious  meetings  had 
effect  upon  many  who  were  half  disposed  and  half  in  hesi 
tancy  as  to  entering  into  covenant  obligations,  when  they 
took  note  of  the  close  espionage,  the  petty  intermeddlings, 
and  the  vexatious  discipline  to  which  church  members  sub 
jected  each  other.  The  obligations  of  "watch  and  ward" 
were  by  no  means  perfunctorily  or  slackly  interpreted  and 
exercised.  The  church  incurred  a  solemn  responsibility 
for  each  one  of  its  members.  Even  after  a  sentence  of  ex 
communication  had  been  passed  against  a  member,  the 
duty  of  reclaiming  him  and  restoring  him  by  repentance 
still  held  a  suspended  relation  between  the  parties.  When 
we  have  to  recognize  further  on  the  ecclesiastical,  as  well 
as  the  civil  proceedings  against  such  members  of  the  Bos 
ton  church  as  were  banished  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  we 
might  suppose  that  the  church  having  cast  them  out  had 
done  with  them.  By  no  means.  One  might  wish  to  regard 
the  act  as  a  lingering  tenderness  of  spirit  in  those  who  re 
mained  here  ;  but  it  was  none  the  less  the  prompting  of 

1  Gen.  xviii.  26-32. 
14 


210  THE    PURITAN   AGE. 

a  covenant  duty  which  moved  the  Boston  church  to  send  a 
committee  to  Aquidnec  to  such  as  were  still  held  to  it  by  a 
suspended  tie.  It  does  not  appear  from  the  records  that 
any  penalty  from  a  civil  court,  other  than  the  loss  of  the 
franchise,  was  at  first  inflicted  upon  an  excommunicated 
person ;  but  the  fact  that  any  one  had  been  so  dealt  with 
would  always  be  at  his  disadvantage  when  judicially  pro 
ceeded  against.  As  a  rule,  unless  the  offence  committed 
by  an  excommunicated  church  member  had  been  of  so 
heinous  a  nature  as  to  lead  to  his  being  utterly  "  cast 
out,"  as  if  henceforward  to  be  "yielded  over  to  Satan," 
it  was  expected  that  lie  would  seek  restoration  by  repent 
ance  and  meek  solicitation.  The  terms  of  forgiveness  and 
renewed  fellowship  were  often  deeply  humbling  to  self- 
respect  and  pride,  but  otherwise  were  not  over-rigid.  Yet 
only  as  it  might  deprive  of  citizenship,  some  excommuni 
cated  persons  seem  to  have  made  light  of  the  penalty,  as 
if  they  were  glad  to  be  rid  of  fetters  and  annoyances. 
So  we  find  this  resolute  order  upon  the  Court  records  of 
September,  1638  :  - 

"  Whereas  it  is  found,  by  sad  experience,  that  diverse  persons 
who  have  bene  justly  cast  out  of  some  of  the  churches  do  pro- 
phanely  contemne  the  same  sacred  and  dreadfull  ordinance,  by 
presenting  themselves  overbouldty  in  other  assemblies,  and  speak 
ing  lightly  of  their  censures,  to  the  great  offence  and  greefe  of 
God's  people,  and  incuragement  of  evill  minded  persons  to  con- 
temne  the  said  ordinance,  —  it  is  therefore  ordered,  that  whosoever 
shall  stand  excommunicate  for  the  space  of  6  months,  without  la 
boring  what  in  him  or  her  lyeth  to  bee  restored,  such  person  shalbe 
presented  to  the  Court  of  Assistants,  and  there  proceeded  with 
by  fine,  imprisonment,  banishment,  or  further  for  their  good  be 
haviour,  as  their  contempt  and  obstinacy  upon  full  hearing  shall 
deserve." 

But  in  September,  1639,  the  Court  agreed  that  this  order 
should  be  repealed. 

It  became  a  matter  of  necessity  to  define  the  relations  to 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  211 

the  government  and  community  of  such  persons  as  were 
residents  and  holders  of  property,  but  not  freemen  or  mem 
bers  of  churches.  So  the  Court  in  April,  1634,  ordered 
that  every  one  above  the  age  of  twenty,  after  a  residence 
of  six  months  as  a  householder  or  sojourner,  on  the  sum 
mons  of  the  Governor,  Deputy,  or  two  Assistants,  —  for  a 
first  refusal  to  answer  to  which  he  shoulij.  be  bound  over, 
and  for  a  second  refusal  banished,  unless  further  respited, — 
shall  take  an  oath  in  substance  as  follows  :  promising  to  be 
subject  in  person,  family,  and  estate  to  the  authority,  laws, 
orders,  and  sentences  of  the  Government  here  established, 
to  advance  its  peace  and  welfare,  and  to  warn  it  of  and  help 
avert  from  it  any  peril  or  hurt  with  which  it  is  threatened. 
The  next  month  the  former  Freeman's  Oath  was  slightly 
modified  by  another  substituted  for  it,  not  altering  its  sub 
stance.  And  it  was  "further  agreed  that  none  but  the 
General  Court  hath  power  to  chuse  and  admitt  freemen." 
In  September,  1635,  the  exclusive  privileges  of  freemen  in 
the  General  Court  were  extended  by  the  following :  "  It 
was  ordered  that  none  but  Freemen  shall  have  any  vote  in 
any  town  in  any  action  of  aucthoritie  or  necessity,  or  that 
which  belongs  to  them  by  virtue  of  their  freedome,  as  re- 
ceaveing  inhabitants  and  layeing  out  lands."  It  was  by 
virtue  of  these  exclusive  rights  of  freemen  as  church  mem 
bers  that  these  privileged  persons  acquired  among  other 
prerogatives  one  which  long  afterward  caused  much  liti 
gation  in  our  successive  legal  tribunals.  While  the  build 
ing  and  charges  of  the  house  of  worship  and  the  salary  of 
the  minister  were  laid  as  a  tax  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of 
a  town,  the  body  of  covenanted  church  members  claimed 
the  right  of  selecting  and  instituting  the  minister.  At 
least  ten  freemen  were  needed  for  choosing  a  deputy  to  the 
Court  from  any  town. 

The  next  step  in  this  form  of  legislation  was  the  asser 
tion  of  the  power  of  the  magistrates  over  the  formation  and 
institution  of  churches.  As  follows  :  — 


212  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"In  General  Court,  Mar.  1636.  Forasmuch  as  it  hath  bene 
found  by  sad  experience  that  much  trouble  and  disturbance  hath 
happened  both  to  the  church  and  civill  state  by  the  officers  and 
members  of  some  churches  which  have  bene  gathered  within  the 
limitts  of  this  jurisdiction  in  an  undue  manner,  and  not  with  such 
publique  approbation  as  were  meete,  it  is  therefore  ordered  that 
all  persons  are  to  take  notice  that  this  Court  doth  not,  nor  will 
hereafter  approve  of  any  such  companyes  of  men  as  shall  hence- 
forthe  joyne  in  any  pretended  way  of  church  fellowshipp,  without 
they  shall  first  acquainte  the  magistrates  and  the  elders  of  the 
greater  parte  of  the  churches  in  this  jurisdiction  with  their  inten 
tions,  and  have  their  approbation  herein.  And  further,  it  is  or 
dered  that  noe  person,  being  a  member  of  any  church  which  shall 
hereafter  be  gathered  without  the  approbation  of  the  magistrates 
and  the  greater  parte  of  the  said  churches,  shalbe  admitted  to  the 
freedome  of  this  commonwealthe." 

Two  very  significant  points  are  to  be  noted  here.  First 
is  the  theocratic  element.  The  franchise  having  been  al 
ready  limited  to  church  members,  it  was  evident  that  as 
new  towns  and  settlements  were  extended,  new  churches 
formed  in  them  might  introduce  some  laxities,  opening 
membership  on  easy  terms  for  securing  the  further  coveted 
right  to  the  franchise.  The  magistrates  and  the  existing 
churches  were  to  set  up  a  guard  against  this  risk,  and  to 
be  consulted  in  this  case.  The  other  point  to  be  noticed  is 
that  we  have  in  this  Court  order  the  first  intimation  of  a 
restriction  upon  the  perfect  independency  pf  each  church. 
The  Scotch  Presbyterian  Bailey  soon  made  it  a  reproach  to 
the  New  England  churches  that  they  were  isolated  and 
discordant  units,  with  no  bond  of  union.  So  that  hence 
forward  we  trace  in  our  history  the  initiatory  measures 
which  developed  into  the  usage  of  councils  of  neighboring 
churches,  called  at  first  for  sympathetic  and  sisterly  recog 
nition,  then  for  advice,  then  for  degrees  of  dictation  and 
authority  in  the  settlement  or  dismission  of  a  minister,  or 
in  a  matter  of  variance. 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  213 

It  was  not,  however,  only  in  holding  the  exclusive  privi 
leges  of  the  franchise  that  church  members  were  favored. 
It  would  have  seemed  but  reasonable  that  they  should  have 
borne  the  whole  charges  of  such  provisions  and  institutions 
as  existed  for  their  special  benefit.  This,  however,  was 
far  from  being  the  case.  In  November,  1637,  the  atten 
tion  of  the  Court  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  churches 
had  different  methods  for  providing  for  the  maintenance  of 
ministers,  and  that  "  some  ministers  are  not  so  comforta 
bly  provided  as  were  fitting."  The  churches  were  to  in 
quire  into  this  matter  and  send  some  to  advise  with  the 
Court  at  its  next  session  "  that  some  order  may  bee  taken 
hearin  according  to  the  rule  of  the  gosple."  In  immediate 
connection  with  this  entry  we  find  another  which  throws 
light  upon  it.  The  freemen  of  the  town  of  Newbury  had, 
in  May,  1636,  been  mulcted  with  a  fine  of  six  pence  apiece 
"  for  chuseing  and  sending  to  this  Court  a  deputy  which 
was  noe  freeman."  Now  we  find  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town  are  indebted  to  divers  persons  in  the  sum  of 
sixty  pounds  — 

"  expended  upon  publike  and  needful  occations  for  the  benefit 
of  all  such  as  do  or  shall  inhabite  there,  as  building  of  houses  for 
their  ministers  ;  and  whereas  such  as  are  of  the  church  there  are 
not  able  to  beare  the  whole  charge,  and  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants 
there  do  or  may  enjoy  equall  benefit  thereof  with  them,  yet  they 
do  refuse,  against  all  right  and  justice,  to  contribute  with  them, 
it  is  therefore  ordered  —  " 

tli at  the  major  part  of  the  freemen  assembled  in  meeting 
shall  have  power  to  levy  the  amount  due  upon  the  estates 
of  all  the  property  holders,  resident  or  non-resident.  This 
precedent  was  well  followed  by  an  order  of  Court  in  Sep 
tember,  1638 :  - 

"  This  Court  takeing  into  consideration  the  necessity  of  an 
equall  contribution  to  all  common  charges  in  townes,  and  observ 
ing  that  the  chiefe  occation  of  the  defect  hearein  ariseth  from 


214  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

hence,  that  many  of  those  who  are  not  freemen,  nor  members  of 
any  church,  do  take  advantage  thereby  to  withdraw  help  in  such 
voluntary  contributions  as  are  in  use,  [the  Court  declares]  that 
every  inhabitant  in  any  towne  is  lyable  to  contribute  to  all  charges, 
both  in  church  and  commonwelth,  wherof  hee  doth  or  may  receive 
benefit."  All  who  will  not  voluntarily  do  this,  "  for  all  common 
charges,  as  well  for  upholding  the  ordinances  in  the  churches  as 
otherwise,  shalbee  compelled  thereto  by  assessment  or  distress." 

It  was  an  ingenious  suggestion  in  this  general  order,  as 
in  the  special  one  for  Newbury,  that  those  who  did  not 
seek  the  help  of  church  and  ministry  were  free  to  do  so 
if  they  would.  Their  not  seeking  that  help  for  themselves, 
however,  did  not  discharge  them  from  the  obligation  to 
share  in  the  expense  of  it  to  those  who  did.  For  reasons 
the  whole  force  of  which  for  that  time  we  may  not  fully 
appreciate,  there  were  some  —  enough  of  them  to  attract 
the  jealousy  of  the  Court  —  who,  though  having  the  quali 
fication  of  church  membership,  did  not  avail  themselves 
of  their  right  to  claim  the  franchise.  May  10,  1643, 
in  the  Court,  "  It  is  ordered,  concerning  members  that 
refuse  to  take  their  freedom,  the  churches  should  bee 
writ  unto,  to  deale  with  them." l  Here  again  we  find 
the  civil  power  interfering  with  the  internal  discipline 
of  the  churches.  The  justification  which  would  probably 
have  been  offered  for  it  was,  that  the  State  had  the  right 
to  the  aid  in  council  of  every  good  citizen,  especially  of 
those  who  as  being  under  covenant  might  be  expected  to 
sympathize  with  its  religious  administration.  The  Court 
declared  itself  more  fully  on  this  subject  in  November, 
1647, thus :  - 

"There  being  within  this  jurisdiction  many  members  of  churches 
who,  to  exempt  themselves  from  all  publike  service  in  the  common 
wealth,  will  not  come  in  to  be  made  freemen,  it  is  therefore 
ordered  by  this  Courte,  and  the  authority  thereof,  that  all  such 

1  Records,  ii.  38. 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  215 

members  of  churches  in  the  severall  townes  within  this  jurisdiction 
shall  not  be  exempted  from  such  publike  service  as  they  are  chosen 
to  by  the  freemen  of  the  severall  townes,  as  cunstables,  jurers, 
selectmen,  and  surveyors  of  high  wayes ;  and  if  any  person  shall 
refuse  to  serve  such  office,  he  shall  pay  for  every  such  refusall, 
being  legally  chosen  thereunto,  such  fine  as  the  towne  shall  im 
pose,  not  exceeding  twenty  shillings,  as  freemen  are  liable  unto  in 
such  cases." * 

Compulsory  attendance  upon  religious  services  next  en 
gaged  the  attention  of  the  Court  in  the  exercise  of  its  Bible 
authority.  In  November,  1646,  we  find  the  following:  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  in  these  countryes,  where  the  churches  of  Christ 
are  seated,  the  prosperity  of  the  civill  state  is  much  advanced  and 
blessed  of  God  when  the  ordinances  of  true  religion  and  publike 
worship  of  God  do  find  free  passage  in  purity  and  peace,  therefore, 
though  we  do  not  judge  it  meete  to  compel  any  to  enter  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  church,  nor  force  them  to  partake  in  the  ordi 
nances  peculiar  to  the  church  [as  was  then  compulsory  in  Eng 
land]  which  do  require  volentary  subjection  thereunto,  yet,  seeing 
the  Word  is  of  general  and  common  behoofe  to  all  sorts  of  people, 
as  being  the  ordinary  meanes  to  subdue  the  harts  of  hearers  not 
onely  to  the  faith,  and  obedience  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  but  also  to 
civill  obedience,  and  allegiance  unto  magistracy,  and  to  just  and 
honest  conversation  towards  all  men  — " 

therefore,  attendance  upon  worship  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and 
on  days  of  fasting  and  thanksgiving,  is  required  of  every 
one  not  incapacitated,  on  a  penalty  of  a  fine  of  five  shil 
lings  for  each  case  of  absence.2  The  penalty  exacted  in 
England  at  that  time  for  that  offence  was  twelve  pence. 

The  dignity  and  authority  of  the  ministry  were  to  be 
maintained  by  an  order  of  the  same  Court.  Any  one  con 
temptuously  behaving  himself  toward  the  Word  preached, 
or  to  the  preacher,  interrupting,  disputing,  or  denying, 
causing  reproach  or  ridicule  for  the  service  or  ordinances, 

1  Records,  ii.  208.  2  Ibid.,  ii.  177. 


216  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

shall  for  the  first  offence  be  rebuked  by  a  magistrate  at 
a  lecture,  and  bound  to  good  behavior,  — 

"  and  if  a  second  time  they  breake  forth  into  the  like  contempt 
uous  carriages,  either  to  pay  five  pounds  to  the  publike  treasury, 
or  to  stand  two  houres  openly  upon  a  block  4  foote  high,  on  a 
lecture  day,  with  a  paper  fixed  on  his  breast,  with  this,  A  Wanton 
Gospeller,  written  in  capitall  letters."  1 

t  It  was  but  natural  —  indeed,  how  could  it  have  been 
otherwise  ?  —  that  the  Court,  composed  exclusively  of  mem 
bers  of  churches,  and  chosen  to  their  civil  offices  by  the 
same  class  of  electors,  should  have  assumed  the  oversight 
of  the  religious  interests  and  order  of  the  jurisdiction  with 
the  same  sense  of  responsibility  and  the  same  exercise  of 
authority  as  in  secular  affairs.  The  elders  may  have  in 
terposed  more  or  less  in  prompting  the  magistrates  and 
deputies ;  but  the  clerical  and  the  civil  leaders  were  of 
the  same  mind  and  spirit.  The  Court  on  many  occasions 
must  have  been  very  much  like  a  church  meeting,  with  its 
prayers,  its  Scripture  citations,  its  phraseology  in  speeches, 
and  its  subjects  of  debate.  We  may  trace  continuously 
through  the  Records  the  persuasion  on  the  part  of  the 
Court  that  it  should  take  the  lead  in  advising  and  direct 
ing  all  measures  successively  found  to  be  essential  for  a 
religious  commonwealth.  Even  the  original  independency 
of  the  churches  must  yield  to  such  a  degree  of  imposed 
uniformity  as  was  needed  to  secure  the  strength  of  union. 
So,  as  early  as  March,  163|, — 

"  This  Court  doeth  intreate  of  the  elders  and  brethren  of  every 
church  within  this  jurisdiction  that  they  will  consult  and  advise  of 
one  uniforme  order  of  discipline  in  the  churches  agreeable  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  then  to  consider  howe  farr  the  magistrates  are 
bound  to  interpose  for  the  preservation  of  that  uniformity  and 
peace  of  the  churches."2  June  2,  1641.  "It  is  desired  that  the 

1  Records,  ii.  179.  2  Ibid.,  i.  142. 


CHURCH    MEMBERSHIP    AND   THE    FRANCHISE.  217 

elders  would  make  a  catachisme  for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the 
grounds  of  religion." 

Cotton's  "  Milk  for  Babes  "  was  a  response. 

It  is  without  surprise  that  we  meet  the  first  recognition 
by  Winthrop  of  the  presence  and  expression  of  a  feeling 
among  those  deprived  of  the  civic  franchise  that  the  time 
had  come  for  a  hearing  upon  their  disabilities.  Winthrop 
writes  in  March,  1644  :  — 

"  A  proposition  was  made  this  Court  for  all  the  English  within 
the  united  colonies  to  enter  into  a  civil  agreement  for  the  main 
tenance  of  religion  and  our  civil  liberties,  and  for  yielding  some 
more  of  the  freeman's  privileges  to  such  as  were  no  church  mem 
bers  that  should  join  in  this  government.  But  nothing  was  con 
cluded,  but  referred  to  next  Court."  l 

Those  who  had  —  not  always  patiently  —  waited  to  put 
in  their  grievances  on  this  score,  had  yet  to  wait  much 
longer  before  the  full  rights  of  citizens  were  secured  to 
them,  —  not  then  by  the  free  concession  of  the  Court,  but 
from  royal  dictation ;  and  even  this  mandate  was  at  first 
so  grudgingly  yielded  to,  that  for  a  time  it  was  ingeniously 
circumvented. 

It  was  with  very  great  deliberation,  and  with  a  formal 
detail  of  grounds  and  reasons,  that  the  Court,  pursuing  its 
assumed  task  of  supervising  the  churches  and  providing 
for  the  interests  of  uniformity  as  overriding  their  inde 
pendency,  initiated  the  proposition  of  a  synod  of  the 
elders  and  messengers,  not  only  of  the  churches  in  its  own 
jurisdiction,  but  of  the  other  three  confederated  colonies. 
May  6, 1646,  we  find  the  record  of  the  first  action  of  the 
Court  on  this  subject.  A  long  and  carefully-drawn  pre 
amble  opens  it :  — 

"  The  right  forme  of  church  government  and  discipline  being  a 
good  parte  of  the  kingdome  of  Christ  upon  earth,  the  settling  and 

1  Records,  ii.  160. 


218  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

establishing  thereof  by  the  joynt  and  publicke  agreement  and  con 
sent  of  churches,  and  by  the  sanction  of  civill  authority,  must 
needs  greatly  conduce  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  the  settling  and  safety  of  church  and  common 
wealth,  where  such  a  duty  is  dewly  attended  and  performed." 

Reference  is  then  made  to  the  quiet  state  of  the  planta 
tions  here  at  the  time,  as  favorable  to  such  an  object,  in 
contrast  with  the  distractions  then  convulsing  the  mother 
country.  Friends  at  home  had  written  lamenting  the  vari 
ances  which  had  arisen  in  our  churches,  and  counselling 
more  uniformity.  The  differences  principally  concerned 
the  proper  subjects  of  baptism.  The  New  England  churches 
baptize  only  a  child  one  or  both  of  whose  parents  is  under 
covenant.  Some  are  claiming  the  ordinance  for  children 
whose  grandparents  only  were  church  members.  There 
are  persons  resident  here  "  who  have  binn  members  of  the 
congregations  in  England,  but  are  not  found  fitt  to  be 
receaved  at  the  Lord's  table  here,"  while  they  and  some 
sympathizers  with  them  think  their  children  entitled  to 
baptism.  More  than  all,  the  Baptists  are  asserting  their 
conviction  that  no  child  is  a  proper  subject  of  the  rite. 
The  preamble  proceeds  :  — 

"  Therefore,  for  the  further  healing  and  preventing  of  the  fur 
ther  groweth  of  the  said  differences,  and  upon  the  other  grounds, 
and  for  the  other  ends  afore-mentioned,  and  although  this  Courte 
make  no  quaestion  of  their  lawfull  power  by  the  word  of  God  to 
assemble  the  churches,  or  their  messengers,  upon  occasion  of  coun- 
cell  for  anything  which  may  concerne  the  practize  of  the  churches,1 
yet  because  all  members  of  the  churches,  though  godly  and  faith- 
full,  are  not  yett  clearely  satisfyed,  itt  is  therefore  thought  expe 
dient  for  the  present  occasion  not  to  make  use  of  that  power,  but 
rather  hereby  declare  it  to  be  the  desire  of  this  present  Generall 
Courte  that  there  be  a  publicke  assembly  of  the  elders  and  other 
messengers  of  the  severall  churches  within  this  jurisdiction,  who 
may  come  together  and  meete  at  Cambridge  upon  the  first  day  of 

1  The  Court  here  assumes  the  prerogative  of  Parliament. 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP    AND   THE    FRANCHISE.  219 

September  now  next  ensewing,  there  to  discusse,  dispute,  and 
cleare  up,  by  the  word  of  God,  such  questions  of  church  govern 
ment  and  discipline." 

The  assembly  is  to  continue  indefinitely  till  the  major 
part  at  least  shall  have  come  to  some  substantial  agree 
ment  on  the  matters  proposed.  If  necessary,  there  may 
be  two  or  more  sessions.  The  result  is  to  be  presented  to 
the  General  Court  for  examination  and,  if  possible,  appro 
bation.  The  churches  are  to  meet  severally  their  own 
charges.  Inasmuch  as  Massachusetts  had  three  years  pre 
viously  brought  about  a  civil  confederation  with  its  sister 
colonies  of  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven,  their 
churches  were  to  be  invited  to  take  equal  part  in  the 
assembly.1 

One  can  but  pause  here  to  recognize  the  introduction 
for  the  first  time  on  this  continent  of  one  of  those  church 
councils  which,  in  long  succession,  have  proved  the  bane 
and  scourge  of  Christendom.  Called  to  promote  harmony 
and  uniformity,  they  have  invariably  resulted  in  variance, 
discord,  and  a  widening  of  previous  breaches.  They  pro 
ceed  upon  the  assumption  that  those  who  are  supposed  to 
share  common  beliefs  and  purposes  may  be  moved  by 
coming  together  in  free  discussion  to  come  into  accord  on 
matters  upon  which  they  differ.  It  is  further  assumed 
that  these  matters  of  difference  are  of  secondary  import, 
and  that  the  strength  of  the  bond  which  holds  all  to  "  fun 
damentals*'  and  essentials  will  prevail  in  reconciling  them 
to  yield  up  or  subordinate  their  individualities  of  diver 
gence  ;  but  these  assumptions  or  expectations  have  always 
been  baffled.  Essentials  and  non-essentials,  fundamentals 
and  specialties,  common  beliefs  and  individualisms,  invari 
ably  change  places  on  such  occasions.  The  points  on  which 
a  man  differs  in  his  belief  from  his  brethren  are  to  him  the 
matters  of  primary  importance.  The  things  which  are  not 
to  be  left  undone  come  to  signify  far  more  than  the  things 

1  Records,  in.  70-73. 


220  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

that  are  to  be  done.  The  degree  of  unity  which  existed 
among  the  members  before  they  met  in  Council  is  always 
diminished  rather  than  increased  by  their  debates,  in  which 
their  differences  come  to  mean  even  more  to  themselves, 
and  are  found  to  be  more  disagreeable  to  one  another.  The 
special  element  in  each  man's  creed  is  to  him  the  life  of  it. 
The  product  of  the  common  peaceful  labors  of  bees  is 
honey ;  but  the  individuality  of  each  bee  is  protected  by 
his  sting. 

Among  many  of  the  elders  and  messengers  of  the  New 
England  churches  there  was  a  dread  of  Presbyterianism, 
then  rife  in  England ;  but  a  few  were  supposed  to  favor  it. 
It  was  well  understood  before  the  meeting  of  the  synod 
how  its  work,  or  results,  or  advice  would  be  limited  by 
the  principles  of  Independency  and  Congregationalism. 
There  had  been,  as  Winthrop  tells  us,1  a  serious  difference 
of  opinion  between  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  as  to 
the  rightful  province  of  the  Court  in  proposing  a  synod,  as 
the  Court  might  be  made  responsible  for  giving  force  to 
its  results  and  conclusions.  The  magistrates,  however, 
asserted  their  responsibility  in  the  case,  as  coming  to  them 
by  "the  word  of  God  ;"  yet  they  consented  that  the  synod 
should  be  convened  uby  way  of  motion  only  to  the  churches, 
arid  not  by  .any  words  of  command."  We  look  to  Win 
throp  still  for  information.  But  few  of  the  elders  of  the 
other  colonies  came  to  the  appointed  gathering  at  Cam 
bridge,  and  the  session,  which  lasted  only  fourteen  days, 
as  the  winter  was  coming  on,  was  unsatisfactory.  The 
elder  from  Concord  was  unable,  though  willing,  to  attend. 
The  church  at  Hingham  held  back.  Boston  and  Salem 
churches  had  objections  to  being  present.  About  thirty  or 
forty  Boston  members  —  some  of  whom  "  had  come  lately 
from  England, .where  such  a  vast  liberty  was  allowed  "- 
excepted  that  the  churches  had  a  right  to  meet  in  synod 
without  the  intervention  of  the  magistrates :  that  the  call 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  264. 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  221 

was  really  prompted  by  the  elders,  and  not  by  the  Court, 
and  that  the  Court  might  enforce  the  results  upon  the 
churches.  The  elders  of  Boston  were  moved  to  attend  for 
courtesy's  sake,  though  not  sent  by  the  church.  Norton, 
preaching  a  Thursday  lecture,  tried  to  reconcile  the  rela 
tions  of  Church  and  State  in  the  matter  by  discoursing 
upon  "  Moses  and  Aaron  meeting  in  the  mount  and  kissing 
each  other." 

The  synod  assembled  again  at  Cambridge,  June  8,  1647, 
but  a  prevalent  epidemic  caused  its  adjournment  in  a  fort 
night.  It  reassembled  in  August,  1648.  The  childlike 
faith  of  Winthrop  found  a  propitious  omen  in  an  incident 
of  the  occasion.  Midway  in  the  sermon  a  snake,  creeping 
in  at  the  door,  crawled  into  the  seat  occupied  by  the  elders. 
An  elder  of  Braintree,  "  a  man  of  much  faith,"  while 
"  divers  of  the  others  shifted  from  it,"  crushed  it  with  his 
foot  and  staff.  Winthrop  wrote  :  "  This  being  so  remark 
able,  and  nothing  falling  out  but  by  Divine  providence,  it 
is  out  of  doubt  the  Lord  discovered  somewhat  of  his  mind 
in  it.  The  serpent  is  the  devil ;  the  synod,  the  repre 
sentative  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  New  England."  1 
The  synod  ended  its  work  in  fourteen  days,  contenting 
itself  with  adopting  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Confes 
sion  of  Faith,  and  by  drawing  a  form  of  discipline,  accord 
ing  to  the  practice  .of  their  churches.  This  latter  was  to 
be  "  presented  to  the  Churches  and  General  Court  for 
their  consideration  and  acceptance  in  the  Lord."  In 
October,  1649,  the  Court  submitted  these  results  to  the 
churches  for  their  consideration,  and  in  October,  1651, 
after  this  deliberate  examination,  it  received  a  substan 
tial  approval. 

An  interesting  matter  appearing  in  several  entries  on 
the  Court  records  illustrates  both  the  assumed  responsi 
bility  of  the  civil  government  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
churches,  and  its  jealous  care  to  preserve  the  high  standard 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  330. 


222  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

of  the  ministry  for  ability  and  training  in  professional 
learning.  The  rude  structure  for  the  worshippers  in  the 
First  Church,  after  it  had  been  enlarged,  had  in  ten  years 
become  decayed,  and  no  longer  serviceable  nor  spacious 
enough  for  its  general  uses  for  various  purposes  as  a  meet 
ing-house.  In  1640  a  new  and  larger  edifice,  on  another 
site,  was  substituted.  In  ten  years  more,  so  rapid  was  the 
growth  of  the  town  that  a  second  church  was  gathered,  the 
thirtieth  in  the  jurisdiction,  and  seven  brethren  entered 
into  covenant  to  constitute  it.  It  was  not,  however,  until 
four  years  after  its  house  of  worship  had  been  built  that 
it  succeeded  in  securing  a  pastor.  Several  acceptable 
preachers  had  transiently  served  it,  but  declined  the  per 
manent  office.  The  first  of  the  signers  of  its  covenant 
was  Michael  Powell.  He  had  been  licensed  by  the  Court 
in  May,  1646,  "  to  keepe  an  ordinary  and  sell  wyne,"  in 
Dedham,  where  he  lived.  He  was  a  deputy  from  that  town 
to  the  Court  in  1648,  and  took  up  his  residence  in  Boston. 
He  had  "a  gift  in  prayer  and  exhortation,"  and  the  church, 
wearied  with  waiting,  invited  him  to  become  its  teacher, 
and  he  assented.  The  Court  interposed  its  prohibition. 
In  answer  to  a  petition  from  the  church,  the  Court,  in  Octo 
ber,  1652,  in  considerate  and  courteous  terms,  in  the  way 
of  "  loving  advice,"  gave  its  reasons  to  both  parties.  It 
was  at  a  time  when  in  England  Cromwell's  troopers  and  a 
most  miscellaneous  company  of  men,  from  camp,  fields,  and 
workshops,  rude  and  illiterate,  exhorted  in  pulpits,  to  the 
scandal  of  the  scholarly  Puritans,  bringing  the  ministry 
into  contempt.  The  Court,  recognizing  the  dignity  of  Bos 
ton  in  its  ministry,  makes  a  reference  to  "  the  humour  of 
the  times  in  England  inclineing  to  discourage  learning, 
against  which  we  have  born  testimony,  this  Court  in  our 
petition  to  the  Parliament,  which  we  should  contradict  if 
we  should  approve  of  such  proceedings  amongst  ourselves." 
The  Court  was  willing  that  Mr.  Powell  should  serve  the 
church  as  "  ruling  elder,"  but  not  as  pastor  or  teacher,  for 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  223 

which  it  considers  him  unfit,  as  lacking  in  "  such  abilities, 
learning,  and  qualifications  as  are  requisite  and  necessary 
for  an  able  ministery  of  the  gosple."  Mr.  Powell  might 
edify  by  exhortation,  but  he  might  not  be  able  to  convince 
"  gayne  sayers."  The  church  may  enjoy  him  as  a  ruling 
elder,  but  they  must  wait  for  "  the  ordinances  till  they  can 
secure  a  fitt  pastor  or  teacher."  The  Court  even  ventures 
to  propose  such  an  one  by  name,  but  in  vain.  Both  parties 
acquiesced  in  the  advice,  Mr.  Powell  in  a  very  modest 
letter.1 

On  another  special  occasion  the  Court  intervened,  as  if 
in  discharge  of  its  trust  in  "  the  care  of  all  the  Churches." 
The  death  of  Mr.  Cotton  in  1652  was  a  grievous  blow  to 
his  flock,  and  Boston  must  do  what  it  could  to  supply  his 
place.  John  Norton,  at  that  time  minister  of  Ipswich,  had 
then  the  highest  reputation  in  scholarly  and  ministerial 
qualities,  which  had  already  been  frequently  put  to  trial  in 
Boston.  His  own  church  seems  at  first  to  have  loaned  him, 
as  if  liable  to  recall,  to  the  bereaved  town,  and  it  was  not 
till  1656  that  he  was  instituted  there  as  teacher.  Previous 
to  this  the  divisions  and  contentions  between  his  church 
and  that  in  Boston  about  his  removal,  became  so  aggra 
vated  that  the  Court  itself  summoned  and  constituted  a 
council  of  elders,  and  two  messengers  from  each  of  twelve 
towns,  to  meet  with  the  two  conflicting  churches,  at  Ips 
wich,  to  compose  the  differences.  The  expenses,  paid 
from  the  public  treasury,  amounted  to  about  twenty-five 
pounds.2 

The  Court  appears  again  in  a  very  curious  exercise  of 
its  ecclesiastical  functions,  in  addressing  a  letter  in  October, 
1663,  to  the  famous  dissenting  divine,  Dr.  John  Owen,  of 
London.  The  Court  thought  the  best  supply  none  too 
good  for  the  service  of  its  leading  church.  After  the 
death  of  Mr.  Norton  his  flock  had 'sent  an  invitation  to 

1  Records,  iii.  293,  331,  359,  and  Records  of  Second  Church. 

2  Records,  iii.  378,  387. 


224  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Dr.  Owen  to  come  and  fill  the  vacancy.  The  Court's  let 
ter  was  to  second  and  advance  this  appeal.  It  is  really  a 
graceful  and  charming  epistle,  modest  and  earnest,  re 
cognizing  the  sacrifice  to  be  made  if  the  invitation  should 
be  accepted,  but  pressing  upon  him  the  sacredness  and 
urgency  of  the  need  of  the  wilderness  work.  He  is  re 
minded  "  that  Abraham  and  Moses  at  the  call  of  God  for- 
sooke  theire  country  and  the  pleasures  thereof."  Governor 
Endicott  signs  the  letter  in  behalf  of  the  Court.1 

While  the  Court  thus  steadily  extended  its  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  each  and  all  the  churches,  in  carrying 
into  effect  its  theocratical  principles,  it  kept  a  watchful  eye 
upon  all  heretical  utterances  that  might  bring  its  doctrinal 
system  under  question.  They  had  had  many  warnings 
from  religionists  in  England  who  were  in  general  sympathy 
with  them,  that  their  administration  of  affairs  in  Church 
and  State  was  sharply  scrutinized,  and  that  much  anxiety 
was  there  felt  lest  the  activity  and  perversity  of  some  rest 
less  minds  among  the  colonists  might  bring  upon  them  the 
scandal  of  heresies.  The  Court  meeting  in  October,  1650, 
found  occasion  to  take  measures  "  for  the  clearinge  of  our 
selves  to  our  Christian  brethren  and  others  in  England." 
The  occasion  was  that  the  Court  "  had  had  the  sight  of  a 
booke,"  copies  of  which  had  been  printed  and  dispersed  in  ' 
England,  u  containing  many  errors  and  heresies  generally 
condemned  by  all  orthodox  writers."  Unfortunately  the 
book  had  been  written  in  New  England  by  one  of  the  most 
honored  gentlemen  and  magistrates  of  the  Colony,  William 
Pynchon.  Its  heresies  concerned  the  received  view  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  The  Court  was  at  pains  first 
to  prepare  and  transmit  to  England  "  A  Declaration  and 
Protestation "  asserting  vehemently  their  "  innocency,  as 
being  neither  partyes  nor  privy  to  the  writinge,  composing, 
printinge,  nor  divulginge  thereof ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary, 
we  detest  and  abhorre  many  of  the  opinions  and  assertions 

1  Records,  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  98. 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE  FRANCHISE.  225 

therein  as  false,  eronyous,  and  hereticall."  Second,  "  that 
it  be  suffycyently  answered  by  one  of  the  reverend  elders." 
Third,  "  that  Mr.  Pinchon  be  summoned  before  the  next 
Generall  Court,  to  answer  for  the  same."  Fourth,  "  that 
the  book  be  burned  by  the  executioner  in  the  market-place  in 
Boston  after  the  Thursday  lecture."  The  affair  occupied 
the  protracted  attention  and  action  of  the  Court.1  Mr.  Nor 
ton  was  appointed  to  answer  the  book  "  with  all  convenient 
speed."  After  a  conference  with  three  of  the  elders,  Mr. 
Pynchon  so  far  explained  and  qualified  some  of  his  ex 
pressed  views  that  the  magistrates  in  May,  1651,  having 
hopes  of  his  convincement  of  his  errors,  and  on  account  of 
troubles  in  his  family,  allowed  him  to  return  to  his  home 
in  Springfield,  he  taking  with  him  Mr.  Norton's  answer  to 
his  book  "  to  consider  thereof."  He  was  enjoined  to  ap 
pear  at  the  October  session  to  give  satisfaction.  Mr.  Nor 
ton  received  twenty  pounds  "  for  his  paynes,"  and  the  Court 
sent  a  copy  of  his  writing  to  England  for  the  press.  At 
the  October  session  the  patience  of  the  Court  was  greatly 
exercised  at  not  getting  satisfaction  from  the  heretic.  The 
grave  censure  hanging  over  him  was  suspended,  that  he 
might  further  weigh  the  "  judicious  answer"  of  Mr.  Norton, 
and  he  was  put  under  bonds  of  £100  to  appear  the  next 
May.  Worried  by  these  proceedings  Mr.  Pynchon  returned 
to  England  in  1652.  and  soon  published  there  a  new  edition 
of  his  book. 

The  austerities  of  the  Puritan  Sabbath  are  familiarly 
known  among  us  both  by  tradition,  with  some  faint  relics 
of  them,  and  by  the  frequent  references  to  them  in  our 
modern  literature.  The  compulsory  attendance  upon  pub 
lic  worship  has  already  been  noticed.  Historic  fidelity 
requires  that  the  most  exacting  law  upon  our  old  statute- 
books  concerning  the  Sabbath  should  appear  at  length  here  : 

"At  a  Generall  Court  at  Boston,  Aug.  6,  1653  :  Upon  informa 
tion  of  sundry  abuses  and  misdemeanors  committed  by  several  per- 

1  Records,  iii.  215. 
*    15 


226  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

sons  on  the  Lord's  day,  not  only  by  children  playing  in  the  streetes 
and  other  places,  but  by  youthes,  maydes,  and  other  persons,  both 
straungers  and  others,  uncivilly  walkinge  the  streetes  and  feilds, 
travilling  from  towne  to  towne,  goeing  on  ship-board,  frequentinge 
common  howses  and  other  places  to  drinke,  sport,  and  otherwise 
to  mispend  that  precious  time,  which  thinges  tend  much  to  the 
dishonor  of  God,  the  reproach  of  religion,  and  the  prophanation  of 
his  holy  Saboath,  the  sanctification  whereof  is  somtime  put  for  all 
dutyes  immediately  respectinge  the  service  of  God  conteined  in 
the  first  table;  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and  the 
authoritie,  that  no  children,  youths,  mayds,  or  other  persons  shall 
transgress  in  the  like  kind  on  penalty  of  beinge  reputed  great  pro- 
vokers  of  the  high  displeasure  off  Allmighty  God,  and  further  incur- 
ringe  the  pcenaltyes  hereafter  expressed ;  namely,  that  the  parents 
and  governors  of  all  children  above  seven  yeares  old  (not  that  we 
approve  of  younger  children  in  evill),  for  the  first  offence  in  that 
kind,  upon  due  profe  before  any  magistrate,  towne  commissioner, 
or  select  man  of  the  towne  where  such  offence  shalbe  committed 
shalbe  admonished ;  for  a  second  offence,  upon  due  profe  as  afore 
said,  shall  pay  as  a  fine  five  shillings  ;  and  for  a  third  offence,  upon 
due  profe  as  aforesaid,  ten  shillings ;  and  if  they  shall  agayne 
offend  in  this  kind  they  shalbe  presented  to  the  County  Court,  who 
shall  augment  punishment  according  to  the  meritt  of  the  fact ;  and 
for  all  youths  and  maydes  above  foorteen  yeares  of  age,  and  all 
elder  persons  whatsoever  that  shall  offend  and  be  convict  as  afore 
said,  either  for  playing,  uncivilly  walking,  drinkinge,  travillinge 
from  towne  to  towne,  goeing  on  ship-board,  sportinge,  or  any  way 
mispending  that  precious  time,"  shall  for  successive  offences  meet 
the  same  graded  punishments  of  fines,  —  "  and  if  any  be  unable  or 
unwillinge  to  pay  the  aforesaid  fines,  they  shalbe  whipped  by  the 
constable,  not  exceeding  five  stripes  for  ten  shillings  fine ;  and  this 
to  be  understood  of  such  offences  as  shalbe  committed  during  the 
day  light  of  the  Lord's  day."  * 

The  Court  made  this  the  subject  of  renewed  and  constant 
legislation.  All  servile  labor,  and  all  passing  from  place 
to  place  save  for  necessity,  mercy,  or  attendance  on  worship 

1  Records,  iii.  316. 


CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP   AND   THE   FRANCHISE.  227 

were  prohibited  on  penalties.  The  Sabbath  laws  were  to 
be  publicly  read  by  the  ministers  in  March  and  September. 
Constables  and  tithing-men  were  to  apprehend  all  Sabbath 
breakers,  and  to  search  tippling  houses  for  them.  Noisy 
offenders  were  to  be  put  into  a  public  "  cage."  A  man  was 
to  be  appointed  to  look  after  each  ten  of  the  houses  of 
neighbors  in  a  town,  to  see  if  the  law  was  observed.  Of 
ficers  were  stationed  on  the  Neck  to  prevent  horses  and 
carts  from  passing  through  or  out  of  Boston  after  sunset 
on  Saturday.  In  1679  ministers  were  relieved  of  the  pub 
lic  reading  of  the  Sabbath  laws,  and  the  duty  was  com 
mitted  to  the  constable  at  some  public  meeting. 

The  aims  and  the  general  and  special  measures  of  this 
theocratic  legislation  will  further  appear  as  we  proceed  to 
examine  the  Puritan  administration. 


VII. 

ADMINISTRATION   UNDER  THE   CHARTER. 

THE  turning-point  for  a  judicial  decision  on  the  course 
pursued  by  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  in  their  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  administration,  is  the  question  as  to  their 
legal  or  inferential  territorial  rights  under  their  charter, 
whether  positive,  exclusive,  or  in  any  way  qualified  or  lim 
ited.  The  alternative  of  these  rights,  as  strictly  legal  or 
inferential  and  constructive,  is  thus  presented  for  a  reason 
here  to  be  stated.  The  two  directly  antagonistic  positions 
have  been  affirmed  and  argued,  that  the  founders  of  Massa 
chusetts  on  the  one  hand  could,  and  on  the  other  that 
they  could  not,  legally  claim  under  their  charter  the  ex 
clusive  rights  which  they  exercised.  Postponing  this  issue 
for  the  present  because  of  the  antagonistic  positions  taken 
concerning  it,  and  because  of  the  novel  elements  and  the 
lack  of  precedents  which  enter  into  it,  we  may  ask  if  other 
than  strictly  legal  considerations  may  not  properly  be  had 
in  view.  One  fact  stands  out  before  us  which  we  cannot 
fairly  set  aside,  as  recognizing  inferential  as  distinct  from 
strictly  legal  rights.  It  is  that  the  magistrates  and  Court 
of  Massachusetts  when  initiating  and  administering  their 
government,  from  the  very  first,  always,  persistently,  and 
consistently,  proceeded  on  the  assumption  —  was  it  not  also 
their  honest  belief  ?  —  that  they  had  here  exclusive  territo 
rial  rights  for  admission  of  other  persons  within  their  juris 
diction  and  rejection  from  it.  Of  course  they  maintained,  as 
some  of  their  champions  have  argued,  that  they  had  these 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  229 

rights  by  the  terms  of  their  charter ;  but  whether  they  re 
garded  these  as  sufficiently  definite  and  positive  or  not, 
they  planted  themselves  also  on  their  inferential  rights. 
They  were,  at  their  own  joint  cost  and  peril,  to  subdue 
and  occupy  a  portion  of  a  waste  wilderness,  as  individuals 
and  parties  have  ever  since  been  doing  —  with  recognized 
pre-emptory  and  exclusive  right  all  over  this  continent  —  in 
securing  homesteads  and  settlements.  The  circumstances 
and  exigencies  of  their  position ;  their  putting  their  all  at 
stake ;  the  perils  of  catastrophe ;  the  liberty  which  was 
open  to  others  to  occupy  other  sections  of  a  boundless  wil 
derness,  and  their  joint  obligations  to  each  other  to  protect 
their  mutual  interests  ;  their  readiness  to  welcome  con 
genial  new-comers,  and  their  dread  of  mischief  from  un 
friendly  intruders, —  these,  if  not  standing  for  strictly  legal 
rights,  were  to  their  minds  equivalents  of  or  substitutes  for 
them.  The  terms  of  a  written  charter,  however  free  or 
restricted,  would  not  suggest  or  furnish  the  motives  and 
means  by  which  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  could  plant 
their  commonwealth. 

If  their  prevailing  motive  and  intent,  as  profoundly  re 
ligious,  has  been  thus  far  defined  and  certified  as  engaging 
the  leading  parties  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  their  en 
terprise,  —  those  most  heartily  committed  to  it  through 
their  consciences  and  hearts,  and  the  investment  of  their 
means,  —  then  it  follows  that  as  men  thoughtful,  prudent, 
and  practically  sagacious,  they  would  recognize  the  neces 
sity  of  a  plan  and  a  method.  Two  conditions  would  present 
themselves  as  of  supreme  importance  :  (1)  They  must  be 
pledged  and  covenanted  with  each  other  for  union,  har 
mony,  and  concert  of  action  in  a  way  to  make  their  religious 
purpose  prominent  and  paramount ;  (2)  While  inviting  and 
welcoming  to  their  fellowship  such  as  would  co-operate  and 
sympathize  with  them,  they  must  rigidly  "  repulse  and  ex 
clude  "  —  as  the  charter  worded  it  —  all  those  who  would 
cause  strife,  variance,  feuds,  and  endanger  sedition  and  the 


230  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

failure  of  an  enterprise  in  itself  hazardous  and  much  im 
perilled  through  its  own  inevitable  risks.  It  will  be  well, 
for  obvious  reasons,  to  deal  first  with  this  second  con 
dition.  Both  these  conditions  were  had  in  view,  indeed, 
in  the  method  by  which  they  limited  the  franchise,  and  in 
their  treatment  of  dissenters  and  intruders.  But  as  the 
latter  condition  more  directly  involved  the  matter  of  their 
legal  rights  under  their  charter,  we  may  here  give  it  the 
precedence. 

As  a  most  pertinent  illustration  of  what  these  chartered 
English  colonists  either  assumed  or  believed  to  be  their 
territorial  rights  as  soon  as  they  initiated  their  authority, 
let  us  take  from  their  records  some  of  the  series  of  meas 
ures  by  which  they  stoutly  proceeded  to  clear  the  domain 
of  all  unwelcome  occupants  here. 

Sept.  7, 1630,  "It  is  ordered  that  noe  person  shall  plant 
in  any  place  within  the  lymitts  of  this  pattent,  without 
leave  from  the  Governor  and  Assistants  or  the  major  parte 
of  them."  i 

Previous  to  this  order  "  Morton  of  Mount  Woolison " 
had  on  the  23d  of  August  been  "  sent  for  by  processe," 
"  sett  into  the  bilbowes,  and  after  sent  prisoner  into  Eng 
land."  But  this  measure  may  be  regarded  as  a  judicial 
proceeding  against  him  for  offences.  Similar  charges  hav 
ing  been  made  against  Thomas  Gray,  he  was,  on  Sept.  28, 
1630,  "  injoyned  to  remove  himself  out  of  the  lymetts  of 
this  pattent  before  the  end  of  March  nexte." 

March  1,  163^,  eight  persons,  who  are  named,  are  or 
dered  to  be  sent  to  England,  as  persons  "  unmeete  to 
inhabit  here,"  with  two  more,  as  prisoners. 

May  3,  1631,  "Tho.  Walford  of  Charlestown,"  after 
being  fined  "  for  contempt  of  authoritie  and  confronting 
officers,  etc.,"  is  ordered,  with  his  wife,  "  to  departe  out  of 
the  lymits  of  this  pattent  before  the  20th  day  of  October 
nexte." 

1  The  Records  give  these  proceedings  under  their  dates. 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE    CHARTER.  231 

June  14,  1631,  "  It  is  ordered  that  noe  person  whatso 
ever  shall  travel  out  of  this  pattent,  either  by  sea  or  land, 
without  leave  from  the  Governour,  Deputy,  or  some  other 
Assistant,  under  such  penalty  as  the  Court  shall,"  etc.  It 
might  seem  as  if  Mr.  Blackstone,  who  had  been  a  solitary 
resident  here  since  1624  or  1625,  needed  from  the  Court  no 
allowance  of  a  homestead  on  the  peninsula.  But  we  read, 
April  1,  1633,  "  It  is  agreed  that  Mr.  William  Blackestone 
shall  have  50  acres  of  ground  sett  out  for  him  neere  to  his 
howse  in  Boston,  to  injoy  for  ever."  This  he  sold  to  the 
town  when  he  removed.  When  at  a  later  period  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  note  that  a  sentence  to  banishment  was 
so  little  regarded  by  some  of  the  Quakers,  we  may  recall 
that  the  Court  had  generally  found  this  process  to  be 
effective.  But  here  is  an  exception.  Oct.  3,  1632,  Nich 
olas  Frost  having  been  convicted  of  theft,  drunkenness, 
and  fornication,  was  sentenced,  after  whipping  and  brand 
ing  on  the  hand,  to  be  "  banished  out  of  this  pattent,  with 
penalty  that  if  ever  hee  be  found  within  the  lymitts  of  the 
said  pattent,  hee  shalbe  putt  to  death."  He  returned  in 
1635,  and  gave  the  Court  much  trouble,  and  finally  dis 
appears  unaccounted  for. 

As  the  Court  thus  claimed  in  all  cases  rights  of  exclu 
sion,  so  it  bestowed  privileges  of  residence  under  its  sanc 
tion.  Thus,  Sept.  25,  1634,  "  It  is  ordered  that  the  Scot- 
tishe  and  Irishe  gentlemen  which  intends  to  come  hither 
shall  have  liberty  to  sitt  downe  in  any  place  upp  Meri- 
macke  Ryver,  not  prepossessed  by  any." 

Sept.  3.  1635,  "  Ordered,  that  John  Smyth  shalbe  sent 
within  theis  six  weekes  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  for  dyvers 
dangerous  opinions  which  hee  holdeth  and  hath  dyvulged, 
if  in  the  mean  tyme  he  removes  not  himself e  out  of  this 
plantation." 

Sept.  6,  1638,  "  Mr.  Willi :  Foster,  appearing,  was  in 
formed  that  wee  conceive  him  not  fit  to  live  with  us; 
therefore  he  was  wished  to  depart  before  the  Generall  Court 


232  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

in  March."  March  13,  163-f .  "  Mr.  Ambros  Marten,  for 
calling  the  church  covenant  a  stinking  canyon  and  a 
humane  invention,  and  saying  hee  wondered  at  God's  pa 
tience,  feared  it  would  end  in  the  sharpe,  and  said  the 
ministers  did  dethrone  Christ  and  set  up  themselves.  He 
was  fined  ten  pounds,  and  counselled  to  go  to  Mr.  Mather 
to  bee  instructed  by  him." 

Sept.  7,  1641,  "  Francis  Hutchinson,  for  calling  the 
church  of  Boston  a  whoare,  a  strumpet,  and  other  corrupt 
tenets,  hee  is  fined  fifty  pounds,  and  to  bee  kept  close 
prisoner  till  it  bee  paid,  and  then  hee  is  banished  upon 
paine  of  death." 

So  far  as  these  sentences  of  banishment  were  for  offences 
or  crimes  of  lawlessness  they  would  not  enter  into  our 
questioning  as  to  whether  or  not  the  proceedings  were  legal 
or  arbitrary.  But  in  those  cases  already  presented,  and 
those  yet  to  come  before  us,  in  which  opinions,  or  simply  a 
restless  or  "  unconforming  disposition "  made  individuals 
"  unmeet  to  inhabit  here,"  the  question  becomes  more 
complicated.  It  may  be  well  at  this  point  to  define  what 
was  signified  by  the  term  "  banishment."  The  Court 
makes  use  of  the  word  in  the  sentences  which  it  inflicted, 
but  we  must  recognize  a  limitation  of  the  full  significance 
of  the  penalty  as  a  legal  one,  and  of  its  effects  upon  its 
victim.  The  full  meaning  of  "banishment"  was  the  ex 
clusion  of  a  subject  from  the  realm.  The  King  of  England 
could  not  pass  that  sentence.  Both  Magna  Charta  and 
the  Act  of  JIabeas  Corpus  denied  him  that  prerogative  as 
attaching  only  to  Parliament.  The  legal  rights  of  a  sub 
ject  " banished"  from  this  colony  were  not  impaired  in 
England,  nor  in  any  other  part  of  the  realm  save  that  he 
was  excluded  from  the  limits  of  this  jurisdiction  held  by 
patent.  The  severity  of  the  infliction  would  depend  upon 
many  circumstances  and  conditions,  and  would  not  neces 
sarily  involve  barbarity  or  inhumanity.  Substantially  the 
whole  continent  here  was  to  Englishmen  a  wilderness.  In 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  233 

the  sharp  controversy  on  the  "  Bloody  Tenent "  between 
John  Cotton  and  Roger  Williams,  the  former,  evidently 
thinking  that  Williams  had  rather  whined  over  his  banish 
ment  and  wilderness  hardships,  yields  to  a  somewhat  grim 
humor  in  referring  to  it.  He  queried  whether  such  banish 
ment  as  Williams  had  suffered  — 

"  be  in  proper  speech  a  punishment  at  all,  in  such  a  Countrey  as 
this  is,  where  the  Jurisdiction  (whence  a  man  is  banished)  is  but 
small,  and  the  Countrey  round  about  it  large  and  fruitfull ;  where 
a  man  may  make  his  choice  of  variety  of  more  pleasant  and  prof 
itable  seats  than  he  leaveth  behinde  him.  In  which  respect,  Ban 
ishment  in  this  Countrey  is  not  counted  so  much  a  confinement 
as  an  enlargement ;  where  a  man  does  not  so  much  loose  civill 
comforts,  as  change  them.1" 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  pleasantry  the  magistrates  did  not 
concern  themselves  with  any  view  of  the  after  experiences 
of  a  banished  person.  Their  sole  object  was  to  be  rid  of 
him.  And,  still  leaving  for  the  present  the  question  of 
their  legal  right  thus  to  exclude  from  their  jurisdiction, 
we  are  dealing  with  the  subject  from  that  point  of  view 
in  which  they  assumed  the  right  as  an  inferential  one  on 
grounds  of  necessity  and  exigency. 

We  may  well  give  a  thought  here  to  the  responsibilities 
of  the  leaders  of  this  enterprise,  and  to  the  personal  risks 
and  charges  which  it  involved  for  themselves.  It  was  not 
strange  that  they  should  read,  as  if  seeking  special  lessons 
for  their  own  guidance,  the  straits  and  buffetings  of  Moses, 
as,  himself  directed  from  on  high,  he  led  his  hosts  into 
the  wilderness.  Every  association  which  we  connect  with 
mere  adventurers,  or  with  those  seeking  for  fortune  and 
gain,  must  be  wholly  set  aside  as  we  contemplate  those 
leaders,  their  inspirations  and  resolutions.  Winthrop,  Sal- 
tonstall,  Humphrey,  Johnson,  and  Dudley,  had  no  need  to 
seek  any  bettering  of  their  fortunes.  Winthrop  had  his 

1  Reply  to  Mr.  Williams. 


234  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

manor  and  freehold,  and  his  right  of  Church  presentation 
in  the  parish  of  his  ancestors  ;  Humphrey  and  Johnson  were 
the  husbands  of  daughters  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln;  and 
Dudley  held  the  responsible  office  of  his  steward.  When 
they  landed  upon  this  soil  the  noble  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts  had  its  birth.  As  we  trace  back  our  de 
veloped  history  to  its  first  pages  and  to  deeds  written  and 
acted  by  them  and  their  immediate  associates,  we  shall 
have  to  note  on  the  record  much  that  we  might  wish  were 
otherwise.  Common  human  weaknesses  intensified  by  nar 
row  and  rigid  principles,  by  harsh  and  unyielding  religious 
tenets,  gave  to  their  proceedings  an  aggravation  of  sever 
ity.  This  is  largely  to  be  referred  to  the  then  universal 
spirit  in  Christendom  which  allowed  inhumanity  and  bar 
barity  a  very  free  indulgence  in  connection  with  the  in 
fliction  of  legal  penalties.  The  fact  that  this  severity  of 
discipline  was  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  Puritan  rule  in 
Massachusetts  may  to  a  degree  relieve  their  fault  in  this 
respect.  In  tracing  the  course  of  that  rule  here  we  have 
found  that  a  tax  for  the  support  of  religious  institutions 
was  exacted  from  all  the  inhabitants,  and  that  attendance 
upon  worship  was  compulsory  on  the  penalty  of  a  fine. 
Such  was  the  law  in  force  in  the  mother  country.  In  the 
colony  of  Virginia,  in  1610,  attendance  on  church  services 
twice  every  Sunday  was  enjoined  "  upon  pain,  for  the  first 
fault,  to  lose  their  provision  and  allowance  for  the  whole 
week  following ;  for  the  second,  to  lose  said  allowance, 
and  also  to  be  whipped ;  and  for  the  third,  to  suffer  death." 
Subsequent  modifications  of  the  law  in  Virginia  were  as 
follows  :  "  The  Governor  published  several  edicts,  —  That 
every  person  should  go  to  church  Sundays  and  holidays, 
or  lie  Neck  and  Heels  that  night,  and  be  a  slave  to  the 
colony  the  following  week;  for  the  second  offence  he 
should  be  a  slave  for  a  month;  for  the  third,  a  year  and 
a  day."  In  Virginia  Assembly,  Aug.  4,  1619,  a  penalty 
of  three  shillings  a  time  was  exacted  for  non-attendance, 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER  THE   CHARTER.  235 

and  in  case   of   a  servant  bodily  punishment  was   to  be 
inflicted.1 

The  fact  of  the  transfer  of  the  Patent  and  the  admin 
istration  of  the  Company  under  it  from  England  hither 
would  have  but  a  qualified  relation  to  the  legality  of  the 
proceedings  here  ;  for  all  the  rights  and  prerogatives 
claimed  or  exercised  by  those  bringing  that  Patent  with 
them  would  have  been  enforced  on  this  soil  by  resident 
officials  and  subordinates  of  the  Company  through  direc 
tions  from  home.  The  two  chief  matters  of  legislation 
which  bring  the  legality  of  the  administration  by  the 
Charter  under  question  are,  the  restriction  of  the  franchise 
to  church  members,  and  the  exclusion  of  all  unwelcome 
intruders  or  offensive  persons  presenting  themselves  here. 
The  writer  will  not  venture  beyond  his  depth  in  discussing 
the  principles  of  law  and  equity  as  bearing  upon  these 
matters.  It  may  be  difficult  to  define  rights  and  immu 
nities,  incidental  and  constructive,  as  conferred  by  the 
Charter ;  but  it  is  not  at  all  difficult  to  say  how  the  pro 
prietors  of  that  Charter  regarded,  interpreted,  vindicated, 
and  applied  their  rights.  They  did  not  lay  claim  to  a  con 
tinent,  but  to  a  patch  of  wilderness  lying  between  two  out 
of  a  thousand  of  its  rivers.  The  whole  remainder  of  that 
wilderness  was  open  and  free  for  occupancy  by  other  per 
sons  who  wished  to  try  other  experiments  under  other 
charters.  The  Records  of  the  Court  show  in  their,  pages 
how  earnest  it  was  to  fix  the  bounds  and  follow  the  lines 
of  its  covenanted  territory.  The  skill  of  the  earliest  sur 
veyors  of  the  Colony,  of  master-navigators,  and  of  stu 
dents  in  Harvard  College,  who  for  the  occasion  are  called 
"  artists,"  was  put  to  well-appreciated  service  for  that  ob 
ject.  This  indicated  the  consciousness  of  a  valued  posses 
sion,  and  a  jealousy  in  protecting  it.  In  the  discussion  by 
papers  between  Winthrop  and  Vane,  which  will  be  in  place 
in  the  matter  of  the  Antinomian  controversy,  the  point  at 

1  Force's  Tracts,  iii.  (ii.)  11,  and  Stith's  Virginia,  p.  147.     1618. 


236  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

issue  was  whether  the  proprietors  of  the  chartered  terri 
tory  had  a  right  by  it  to  exclude  from  it  strangers  and  all 
unwelcome,  persons,  or  whether  all  Englishmen  could  enter 
and  reside  here.  Mr.  Doyle,  the  latest  English  writer  on 
our  early  history,  has  some  forcible  remarks  on  this  sub 
ject.  He  says :  — 

"  Winthrop  sets  forth  effectively  enough  the  abstract  right  of 
the  community  to  keep  out  those  whose  presence  might  bring 
danger.  He  shows  that  the  whole  fabric  of  political  society  in 
New  England  rested  on  the  assumption  that  the  State  was  a  self- 
electing  body,  requiring  from  its  members  certain  religious  quali 
fications.  Where  he  fails  is  in  proving  that  the  infliction  of 
suffering  and  the  interference  with  individual  liberty  were  in  the 
present  instance  necessary." 

The  instance  referred  to  was  the  banishment  of  the 
Antinomians,  the  reason  for  which,  as  laid  down  by  the 
Court,  was  that  their  principles  were  such  as  made  it  im 
possible  for  them  to  live  here  peacefully  and  harmoniously. 
Mr.  Doyle  adds  :  — 

"  If  Winthrop's  apology  for  the  order  shows  an  inadequate  ap 
preciation  of  the  principles  of  religious  freedom,  Vane's  answer 
to  it  did  so  equally.  He  neither  takes  the  broad  line  of  general 
toleration,  nor  the  equally  tenable  line  that  toleration  was  in  the 
present  instance  consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  State.  He 
showed,  too,  how  little  he  understood  the  community  which  he 
had  joined,  by  putting  forward  the  argument  that  the  Patent  gave 
a  right  of  settlement  in  New  England  to  all  persons  whatsoever. 
Such  a  contention  was  wholly  needless  for  controversial  purposes, 
while  the  practical  acceptance  of  it  would  have  been  fatal  in 
the  long  run  to  the  objects  which  Vane  had  in  common  with 
Winthrop."  * 

But  none  the  less,  whatever  were  the  limitations  of 
Vane's  argument,  he  and  Winthrop  represented,  respect 
ively,  the  two  opposing  sides  on  the  vital  question.  Did 

1  The  English  in  America,  i.  178. 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  237 

the  Charter  give  paramount  and  exclusive  rights  to  the 
patentees  of  this  territory  to  possess  it  and  rule  it,  and  to 
exclude  from  it  all  undesirable  strangers,  —  English  as 
well  as  Dutch  or  French, — or  did  that  Charter  leave  the 
territory  free  to  the  entrance  and  residence  of  any  English 
man  who  might  choose  to  come  ?  Lawyers  may  decide ; 
indeed,  lawyers  have  decided  this  —  as  also  so  many  other 
questions  —  on  its  different  sides.  But  one  tiling  is  cer 
tain  ;  namely,  that  if  Winthrop  and  his  Company,  before 
their  emigration,  had  even  conceived  that  such  a  plea  to 
warrant  the  coming  into  their  domain  freely  of  any  per 
sons  unwelcome  to  them  could  have  been  asserted  and 
maintained,  the  territory,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned, 
would  have  been  a  wilderness  to-day. 

Whenever  occasion  called  for  it,  the  assertion  of  the  ex 
clusive  rights  of  the  Company  was  made  in  the  plainest 
and  most  unqualified  terms,  —  not  with  the  tone  of  special 
pleading,  as  an  afterthought,  a  device,  strategetically,  or  as 
if  to  rally  failing  courage.  The  territory  was  worthless 
till  toil  and  money  had  been  spent  upon  it,  and  then  its 
value  accrued  to  those  by  whose  pains  and  charges  it  had 
been  secured.  What  were  even  the  King's  rights  com 
pared  with  theirs  ?  A  technical  usage  and  a  winking  un 
derstanding  between  foreign  sovereigns  had  brought  it 
about,  that  newly-discovered  territory,  sighted  from  the 
ocean,  should  come  under  the  sway  of  the  monarch  whose 
mariners  first  reported  it.  It  was  a  very  easy  process  for 
securing  possession  and  dominion  of  vast  expanses  of  a 
continent.  One  may  well  pause  upon  the  question,  What 
was  the  relative  rightfulness  of  a  claim  like  this  compared 
with  that  of  a  subsequent  actual  possession  secured  by 
private  cost,  and  turned  from  worthlessness  to  intrinsic 
value  by  the  removal  of  forests,  the  subjection  of  wild 
beasts  and  wild  men,  and  the  planting  in  it  of  homes  and 
civilized  communities  ?  In  the  reading  of  our  annals  from 
the  first  settlement  down  to  the  Revolution  we  are  often 


238  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

tempted  to  pause  upon  the  question,  What  after  all  were 
the  grounds  of  natural  right  which  tied  this  and  the  other 
colonies  to  subjection  to  the  mother  country  ? 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Company  with  the  Patent  it  is 
estimated  that  there  may  have  been  some  three  hundred 
persons  already  here  within  the  limits  of  the  jurisdiction. 
All  but  a  few  scattered  individuals,  or  groups,  were  at 
Salem,  previously  sent  over  by  the  Company  as  its  em 
ployees.  Winthrop's  first  company  was  a  round  thousand, 
and  a  second  thousand  at  once  followed.  During  the  first 
twenty  years  after  the  arrival  at  Plymouth  more  than 
twenty  thousand  persons  from  the  Old  World  had  found 
homes  in  New  England.  Parchment  charters  were  the 
only  contribution  made  by  the  monarch  to  this  vast  enter 
prise.  No  patronage  or  help  of  any  kind,  no  treasury 
grant,  no  supplies  of  army  or  navy  or  muniments  of  war 
were  furnished  to  aid  the  work  of  colonization.  It  seems 
to  have  been  by  a  sort  of  premonition  with  the  founders  of 
Massachusetts  that  the  time  would  come  when  their  pos 
terity  would  find  an  argument  for  independence  in  claim 
ing  that  they  had  never  incurred  any  debt  or  obligation  to 
the  mother  country,  that  they  themselves  were  so  jealously 
on  their  guard  neither  to  ask  nor  receive  any  government 
favors,  even  when  their  own  resources  seemed  to  be 
exhausted. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company,  incorporated  twenty  years 
after  that  of  Massachusetts,  neither  in  its  charter,  in  the 
avowed  purposes  of  its  stockholders,  nor  in  its  conduct  or 
management,  made  the  slightest  recognition  of  any  ends 
of  religion.  But  in  its  rights  of  monopoly  it  practised  a 
most  rigid  exclusion  of  all  outside  of  its  membership.  It 
allowed  no  one  to  enter  its  patented  domain  but  its  own 
employees.  More  than  this  :  it  was  covenanted  to  make 
and  to  advance  explorations.  It  not  only  wholly  failed  on 
its  own  part  to  meet  this  obligation,  but  it  forcibly  resisted 
all  attempts  or  designs  of  others  in  such  enterprises.  Its 


ADMINISTRATION    UNDER   THE    CHARTER.  239 

resolve  from  the  first  was  to  continue  its  vast  territory  — - 
rivalling  the  whole  European  continent  —  in  its  original 
wilderness  condition,  as  a  preserve  for  fur-bearing  animals. 
Its  administration  was  carefully  guarded  in  secrecy.  Its 
annual  profits  were  enormous.  By  ingenuity  and  intrigue, 
by  high  patronage  and  presents,  and  by  pointing  to  the 
astounding  powers  conferred  on  it  by  its  Charter,  the  Com 
pany  maintained  its  monopoly  for  exactly  two  centuries. 
When  compelled  by  royal  and  parliamentary  action  to  re 
lax  its  control,  in  the  interests  of  colonization  in  some 
part  of  its  territory,  it  succeeded  in  driving  a  bargain 
which  continued  largely  its  profits  by  trade,  and  for  the 
rest  converted  it  into  a  most  thrifty  land  company.  If 
any  one  should  attempt  a  comparison  of  the  rights  con 
ferred  respectively  by  the  charters  of  the  two  Bay  compa 
nies,  and  of  the  administrations  under  them,  Massachusetts 
would  not  be  found  to  have  been  the  more  exclusive  or 
intolerant. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  protracted  and  tentative  efforts 
of  the  colonists  to  frame  and  digest  a  body  of  laws  suited 
to  the  novel  circumstances  of  their  condition  and  needs, 
they  admitted  that  they  might  be  compelled  to  deviate 
from  English  statutes,  or  at  least  to  supply  their  defects 
in  application  here.  Winthrop  states  the  case  frankly  and 
with  force,  the  Bible  coming  in  the  parenthesis  :  — 

"  Our  Government  is  framed  according  to  our  Charter  and  the 
fundamental  and  common  laws  of  England,  and  carried  on  accord 
ing  to  the  same  (taking  the  words  of  eternal  truth  and  righteous 
ness  along  with  them),  with  such  allowance  for  the  difference 
between  an  ancient,  populous,  and  wealthy  kingdom  and  an  in 
fant,  thin  colony,  as  common  reason  suggests  and  requires." 

Even  the  Episcopal  lawyer,  Lechford,  unwelcome  and 
obnoxious  as  he  was  to  the  fathers  of  the  Colony,  and 
retiring  disaffected  from  their  discipline,  wrote  of  them 
in  1642:  — 


240  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"  I  think  that  wiser  men  than  they,  going  into  a  wilderness  to 
set  up  another  strange  government  differing  from  the  settled  gov 
ernment  in  England,  might  have  fallen  into  greater  errors  than 
they  have  done."  1 

We  are  still  keeping  ourselves  outside  of  the  province 
and  judgment  of  jurists,  as  to  the  legal  rights  of  adminis 
tration  conferred  by  the  Charter,  and  confining  ourselves 
to  those  which  the  magistrates,  in  apparent  sincerity  of 
conviction,  regarded  as  constructively  and  inferentially  be 
longing  to  them  as  of  necessity  and  emergency.  Mr.  Doyle 
justly  affirms  that  "  the  legislation  of  New  England  did  but 
approve  and  confirm  those  modes  of  life  the  adoption  of 
which  had  been  the  chief  motive  for  colonization."  2 

Let  us  suggest,  for  help  in  following  up  our  present  line 
of  comment,  a  supposition,  not  forced,  but  simple  in  its  use. 
Suppose  that  as  Winthrop's  fleet  was  weighing  anchor  in 
the  Downs,  a  ship  not  belonging  to  the  Company  had  sailed 
in  among  them,  and  that  the  captain  on  being  hailed  had 
announced  that  he  had  with  him  a  considerable  number  of 
passengers  who  proposed  to  join  the  Bay  Company  in  its 
enterprise,  to  share  their  rights,  privileges,  and  fortunes, 
saying  nothing  about  their  own  schemes,  or  proffering  any 
stock  or  aid.  Will  any  one  maintain  that  the  responsible 
leaders  of  the  Company  had  no  alternative  but  to  accept 
these  volunteers,  and  allow  them,  on  their  own  terms,  to 
join  the  fleet,  to  land  with  them  on  the  chartered  territory, 
and  at  once  to  take  part  with  them  in  the  administration 
of  it  ?  If  this  case  supposed  had  really  occurred,  the  party 
in  the  strange  ship  would  doubtless  have  been  told  that  till 
fuller  information  could  be  had  concerning  their  intent  and 
means,  their  company  was  not  desirable.  Further  than 
this,  they  would  have  been  forbidden  all  share  and  partici 
pation  in  the  territorial  rights  and  administration  of  the 

1  Plain  Dealing.     (To  the  Reader.) 

2  The  English  in  America,  ii.  84. 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  241 

Company.  Now,  if  the  Company  could  rightfully  exercise 
tl;is  authority  of  exclusion  at  the  beginning  of  their  enter 
prise,  by  forbidding  strangers  and  unwelcome  persons  to 
join  it,  when  and  how  could  they  be  subsequently  divested 
of  that  right  ?  When  and  how  could  their  own  proprietary 
claims  be  so  qualified  that  every  Englishman  would  have 
an  unchallenged  liberty  to  enter  and  abide  here  ? 

What,  we  may  ask,  were  the  rights  of  the  colonists  as 
Englishmen  on  their  purchased  and  patented  territory  ? 
What  privileges  and  immunities  did  these  rights  secure, 
and  how  were  they  to  be  maintained,  not  only  against  those 
who  might  intrude  upon  or  trespass  against  them,  but 
also  against  any  mischievous  or  arbitrary  interference  with 
them  by  the  Government  at  home  ?  We  shall  have  an 
swers  to  these  questions,  most  resolute  and  emphatic, 
given  by  the  magistrates  in  their  dealings  with  trouble 
some  persons,  and  in  their  vindication  of  their  proceed 
ings,  and  also  in  their  stout  remonstrances  and  pleas  even 
against  royal  instructions. 

If  they  were  so  bold  as  directly  to  challenge  and  defy 
the  measures  of  the  King  and  Council  in  interfering  with 
their  jurisdiction  and  administration,  and  yielded  only 
through  compulsion  and  hopelessness  of  resistance,  and 
not  by  free-will,  to  the  vacating  of  their  Charter,  they  made 
the  strongest  possible  assertion  of  what  they  believed  to  be 
their  rights.  Their  challenge  to  the  King  was  ineffectual 
when  finally  made  by  the  first  Colonists  of  Massachusetts, 
but  it  proved  successful  and  effective  when  made  on  pre 
cisely  the  same  grounds  by  a  later  generation  of  the  origi 
nal  stock.  At  the  time  of  the  threatened  vacating  of  the 
Colony  Charter  Andros  had  exasperated  the  Colonists  by 
taunting  them  with  the  insult  that  they  could  not  expect 
the  liberties  of  Englishmen  would  follow  them  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  Very  well.  Assuming  this  to  be  true,  what 
followed  ?  If  shorn  of  any  of  the  liberties  attaching  to 
residents  in  England,  then,  of  course,  their  only  resource 

16 


242  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

was  to  find  an  equivalent  for  what  they  had  lost,  in  falling 
back  upon  their  liberties  as  men,  and  claiming  and  exercis 
ing  these.  This  was  precisely  the  proposition  advanced  by 
John  Adams  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  By  just 
so  much  as  the  Colonists  lacked  of  the  rights  and  immu 
nities  of  Englishmen  they  were  to  find  a  substitute  in  their 
rights  as  men,  for  self-protection  and  self-government. 

If  this  were  true  of  those  who  were  living  here  at  the 
era  of  the  Revolution,  there  was  all  the  more  of  right  and 
reason  in  it  for  the  exiles  of  the  first  generation.  There 
were  reasons  making  it  necessary  and  imperative  for  them 
to  claim  and  exercise  these  natural  rights  here  in  a  wilder 
ness,  expatriated,  at  their  own  charges,  without  govern 
ment  protection  or  patronage,  amid  rude  and  rough  be 
ginnings,  surrounded  with  perils.  They  had  successfully 
withstood  the  first  demand  of  the  home  authorities  in  1635 
to  return  and  surrender  their  charter.  Soon  after  this  the 
civil  war  and  the  upturning  of  the  royal  government  in 
England,  put  into  power  in  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  principles  and  men  in  sympathy  with  the  republican 
and  religious  proclivities  of  the  Colonists.  This  gave  them 
a  breathing,  an  opportunity  for  stiffening  grit  and  muscle, 
and  for  familiarizing  themselves  with  their  own  experiment 
of  government.  All  the  positions  and  principles  whicli 
came  into  assertion  in  the  opening  measures  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  War,  may  be  found  in  something  more  than  their 
germ  in  the  early  Court  Records. 

So  far  the  strict  legality  by  the  terms,  privileges,  and 
limitations  of  the  Charter,  of  the  rights  claimed  and  exer 
cised  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  has  been 
deferred  for  consideration.  And  here  I  may  say  with 
frankness  that  I  do  not  feel  competent  or  qualified  to  deal 
with  the  strictly  legal  bearings  of  this  question  ;  nor  should 
I  care  even  to  discuss  it.  The  fact  that  eminent  jurists 
as  well  as  other  able  but  non-professional  men  have  pro 
nounced  directly  opposite  decisions  upon  it,  might  well 


ADMINISTRATION    UNDER   THE    CHARTER.  243 

dissuade  a  layman  from  intermeddling  with  it.  The  last 
discussion  of  the  subject,  which  has  claimed  the  attention 
of  the  readers  of  our  earliest  history,  is  that  which  came 
from  the  pen  of  that  able  and  acute  jurist,  the  Hon.  Joel 
Parker,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  Royall  Professor  in  the  Dane  Law  School  of 
Harvard  University.1  Judge  Parker  treats  the  topic  of  the 
"  Religious  Legislation  of  Massachusetts  under  the  First 
Charter."  This  involves  the  questions  ^  how  far  any  such 
legislation  was  lawful ;  and  to  what  extent  the  grantees 
had  any  right  of  legislation,  properly  so  called,  by  the  pro 
visions  of  that  instrument."  The  variances  of  judgment 
which  have  been  expressed  on  these  questions,  he  says, 
have  turned  upon  the  alternative  "  whether  the  Charter 
was  regarded  as  instituting  a  corporation  for  trading  pur 
poses,  or  as  the  constitution  and  foundation  of  a  govern 
ment."  The  grantees,  he  believes,  "  regarded  it  as  the  lat 
ter,  and  acted  upon  that  construction."  Looking  at  "the 
terms  of  the  Charter,  and  to  a  sound  construction  of  its 
provisions  to  ascertain  what  rights  of  legislation,  religious 
or  otherwise,  were  possessed  by  the  grantees,"  the  Judge 
confidently  maintains  the  following  propositions :  — 

1.  "  The  Charter  is  not,  and  was  not  intended  to  be,  an  act  for  the 
incorporation  of  a  trading  or  merchants'  company  merely.     But  it 
was  a  grant  which  contemplated  the  settlement  of  a  Colony,  with 
power  in  the  incorporated  company  to  govern  that  Colony." 

2.  "  The  Charter  authorized  the  establishment  of  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Colony  within  the  limits  of  the  territory  to  be  gov 
erned,   as  was   done   by  the  vote   to   transfer   the    Charter   and 
government." 

3.  "The  Charter  gave  ample  powers  of  legislation  and  of  gov 
ernment  for  the  Plantation  or  Colony,  including  power  to  legis- 

1  See,  in  "Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  Massachusetts,  by  Members  of 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  before  the  Lowell  Institute,"  Lecture 
XL  on  the  First  Charter  of  Massachusetts.  By  Joel  Parker,  LL.D.  1869. 


244  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

late  on  religious  subjects,  in  the  manner  in  which  the  grantees  and 
their  associates  claimed  and  exercised  the  legislative  power." 

4.  "  The  Charter  authorized  the  exclusion  of  all  persons  whom 
the  grantees  and  their  associates  should  see  fit  to  exclude  from 
settlement  in  the  Colony ;  and  the  exclusion  of  those  already 
settled,  by  banishment  as  a  punishment  for  offences." 

The  reader  will  notice  the  sweep  and  comprehensiveness 
as  well  as  the  positiveness  and  the  unqualified  character  of 
the  terms  here  set  forth.  And  if  their  justice  and  force 
are  admitted,  the  reader  can  also  judge  how  far  they  go  to 
relieve  and  even  justify  those  measures  and  proceedings  of 
the  Colony,  which  besides  being  condemned  as  arbitrary, 
tyrannical,  and  cruel,  have  also  been  adjudged  illegal.  But 
the  reader  must  turn  to  the  lecture  of  the  Judge,  covering 
more  than  fourscore  pages,  with  its  citations  and  argu 
ments,  its  elaborate  and  learned  pleadings,  its  luminous 
statements,  and  its  frank  and  candid  recognition  of  all 
the  evidence  and  considerations  that  have  been  advanced 
by  those  who  have  maintained  directly  opposite  views  on 
the  great  subject  of  debate,  if  he  would  fairly  apprehend 
the  alternative  views  on  the  lawfulness  of  the  legislation  of 
Massachusetts  under  the  Charter. 

The  writer  need  not  here  repeat  what  he  has  already 
affirmed  in  the  plainest  possible  terms,  that  these  pages  are 
not  written  in  championship  or  vindication  of  the  views 
and  proceedings  -  of  the  legislators  of  the  Colony.  It  is 
not  for  him,  therefore,  to  offer  pleas  or  arguments  on  any 
disputed  matters,  nor  to  pronounce  upon  the  strict  legality 
or  illegality  of  their  construction  of  their  Charter.  This 
question  of  legality  is  indeed  a  most  vital  one,  in  view  of 
the  whole  legislation  and  administration  of  the  government. 
But  it  is  especially  pertinent,  as  it  bears  upon  the  four  epi 
sodes  in  our  early  history  to  be  rehearsed  in  the  latter  half 
of  these  pages,  in  which,  independently  of  what  may  be 
charged  as  persecution,  there  was  also  a  rightful  or  an 
usurped  exercise  of  sovereign  powers.  The  writer  still 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER  THE   CHARTER.          x       245 

confines  himself  to  an  historic  statement  of  the  doings  of 
the  colonial  authorities  as  set  forth  under  the  circumstances 
and  conditions,  with  their  reasonings,  and  constructions 
of  their  rights  and  duties.  These  constructions  are  to  be 
regarded  at  first  sight  either  as  presumptuous  and  high 
handed  assumptions  of  illegal  authority,  or  as  honest 
interpretations  of  privileges  and  obligations  under  the 
stress  of  exigency  and  necessity.  It  is  to  be  granted  that 
to  some  extent  the  authorities  brought  their  embarrass 
ments  and  exigencies  on  themselves,  if  in  an  illegal  and 
presumptuous  way,  as  by  artifice  or  trick,  in  the  removal 
and  transfer  of  their  government  from  Old  to  New  Eng 
land  they  had  perverted  the  original  intent  of  a  home  ad 
ministration  into  a  foreign  one.  Judge  Parker's  argument 
is  to  be  studied  on  this  point.  All  that  the  writer  of  these 
pages  has  been  concerned  with  is  the  views  and  opinions, 
whether  assumptions  or  convictions,  of  the  authorities, 
about  their  own  rights  and  privileges  under  their  Charter. 
On  grounds  already  set  forth,  the  writer,  upon  the  closest 
and  most  candid  study  of  all  that  has  come  within  his 
reach,  has  assured  himself  that  the  authorities  of  Massa 
chusetts  not  only  assumed,  but  were  honestly  and  thor 
oughly  convinced  that  they  rightfully  possessed,  the  powers 
which  they  exercised.  They  had  not  cajoled  themselves 
into  this  belief,  nor  were  they  driven  into  it  as  a  covert,  in 
attempting  to  turn  their  position  of  aggression  into  one  of 
defence.  And  I  have  chosen  to  present  their  views  of  their 
own  legal  rights  as  inferential  or  constructive.  Very  likely 
some  of  the  magistrates,  when  challenged  for  their  course, 
would  have  stoutly  pleaded  that  if  they  had  not  legally  the 
authority  they  exercised,  they  ought  to  have  it.  It  was 
essential,  indispensable  to  them.  As  proprietors  of  terri 
tory,  and  magistrates  under  a  charter,  they  certainly  were 
empowered  to  keep  out  interlopers  and  prevent  sedition. 
The  Charter  empowered  them  to  choose  new  associates, 
joint  proprietors,  "  freemen  "  on  their  own  terms,  and  all 


246  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

who  were  not  members  of  the  Company  were  to  be  re^ 
strained  from  doing  it  any  mischief.  If  anything  further 
were  needed  to  prove  what  they  believed  their  Charter 
assured  and  covenanted  to  them  of  valued  and  exclusive 
rights,  this  would  be  found  abundantly  in  the  tenacity  with 
which  they  held  it,  and  those  rights  under  it  when  chal 
lenged  by  the  royal  commissioners  in  1665,  as  will  further 
on  appear.  Under  the  screws  of  those  commissioners  they 
contested  each  demand  for  concession.  If  they  yielded  at 
any  point,  they  would  have  it  appear  that  it  was  not  from 
pressure,  but  as  an  "  enlargement "  on  motives  of  friend 
ship.  And  when  they  consented,  with  seeming  helpless 
ness,  to  give  up  the  church  membership  restriction  of  the 
franchise,  they  got  round  it  by  requiring  as  a  substitute  a 
full  equivalent  as  an  assurance  of  orthodoxy.  Indeed,  the 
last  assertion  of  their  covenanted  Charter  rights,  just  as 
they  were  to  be  deprived  of  them,  was  the  most  resolute  in 
its  obstinacy.  They  use  the  strongest  language,  and  that 
most  emphatically.  One  reads  in  it  now  how  the  vigor 
of  an  independent  spirit  had  been  nourished  in  the  wil 
derness  till  they  had  well-nigh  forgotten  that  they  had  a 
King. 

Some  stress  may  justly  be  laid  on  the  fact  that  those  who, 
as  original  proprietors  and  members  of  the  Company,  and 
their  subsequent  representatives,  maintained  their  rights 
and  claims  under  the  Charter,  were  all  in  accord  in  so 
doing.  It  was  as  partners  and  proprietors,  and  not  as  in 
dividually  interested,  proceeding  on  the  belief  that  their 
privileges  were  guaranteed  to  them,  that  they  sought  a 
foundation  for  their  legislation,  and  unitedly  opposed  those 
who  questioned  or  resisted  their  administration.  If  they 
could  assure  and  preserve  accord  among  themselves,  re 
taining  the  rule  by  a  firm  hand,  they  felt  that  they  should 
succeed  in  maintaining  their  rights  and  in  resisting  oppo 
sition  from  the  unsympathizing  and  the  disaffected  among 
them.  The  failure  of  some  previous  attempts  at  coloniza- 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  247 

tion  on  this  continent,  they  ascribed,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
the  wholly  worldly,  secular  aims  had  in  view,  while"  they 
exalted  and  thought  to  secure  prosperity  for  their  own  by 
making  religion  its  master  motive.  Before  the  coming 
hither  of  Winthrop's  company  there  had  been  many  pub 
lications  and  reports  of  the  distractions  among  the  suc 
cessive  companies  and  adventurers  in  Virginia.  A  civil 
community,  especially  one  gathered  of  materials  in  a  raw 
and  uncontrolled  medley  of  fortune-seekers  in  a  colony, 
would  be  sure  to  become  a  pandemonium,  save  as  a  strong 
moral  and  religious  restraint  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
them  by  men  in  authority,  themselves  sincerely  and  thor 
oughly  under  the  sway  of  such  motives.  The  preceding 
pages  have  shown  us  that 'the  responsible  authorities  in  the 
administration  of  affairs  in  Massachusetts  had  sought,  con 
sistently  with  their  avowed  purpose,  to  make  not  only  re 
ligion  in  the  abstract,  but  the  literal  commandments  and 
statutes  of  it  as  given  in  the  Bible,  the  basis  of  government 
for  the  community.  However  we  may  judge  or  censure 
the  severity  of  their  rule,  we  owe  even  to  the  sternest  of 
the  magistrates  and  elders  the  generous  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  they  did  not  lay  upon  others  burdens  which  they 
themselves  shrank  from  bearing.  For  reasons  which  then 
had  weight,  and  the  force  of  which  seems  to  have  been 
unchallenged,  the  estates  of  magistrates  and  ministers  were 
exempted  from  the  colony  rates,  or  public  taxes.  The 
charges  to  which  their  position  and  duties  exposed  them, 
and  their  generosity  of  spirit  shown  in  free  contributions 
to  all  good  objects,  were  considered  an  offset  to  such  ex 
emption.  But  the  magistrates  were  in  no  sense  a  favored 
or  indulged  class  of  men  like  the  privileged  orders  and  the 
sharers  of  social  distinctions  in  the  Old  World.  They  were 
held  to  a  more  exemplary  "  walk  and  carriage,"  and  had 
observant  eyes  upon  them. 

Whatever  else   may  be   said  of   Puritan  legislation,  we 
must  admit  its  rigid  and  scrupulous  impartiality.     Win- 


248  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

throp  tells  us l  under  date  of  Sept.  1,  1635  :  "  At  this  Gen 
eral  Court  was  the  first  grand  jury,  who  presented  above 
one  hundred  offences,  and  among  others  some  of  the  Magis 
trates."  Indeed,  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Endicott,  Sir  Richard 
Saltonstall,  and  Humphrey  were  in  turn  subject  to  court 
processes.  In  May,  1644,  "  Mr.  Robert  Saltonstall  is  fined 
five  shillings  for  presenting  his  petition  in  so  small  and  bad 
a  peece  of  paper."  2 

In  following  out  the  spirit  and  method  of  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  Colony  through  the  general  and  county  and 
magistratical  courts,  we  have  to  make  large  account  of  the 
rapid  and  extraordinary  increase  of  the  population  from 
the  swarming  in  of  immigrants  during  its  first  twelve 
years.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  original  promoters  of  the 
enterprise  had  had  no  previous  anticipation  of  the  increased 
responsibilities  and  perplexities  which  would  come  upon 
them  from  this  source.  Happily  for  them,  a  large  propor 
tion  of  the  elements  of  this  rapid  addition  to  their  num 
bers  were  in  sympathy  and  in  general  harmony  with  them 
in  their  religious  and  republican  sentiments  and  principles. 
The  distraction  and  ferment  working  in  the  mother  country, 
before  it  resulted  in  civil  war,  in  the  prostration  of  kingly 
rule,  and  the  temporary  humiliation  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  had  led  many  timid  or  peace-loving  persons,  of  strong 
religious  principles,  not  in  all  cases  however  Puritanical,  to 
seek  here  if  only  a  temporary  refuge  for  themselves  and 
their  families.  It  was  thus  that  the  Colonists  were  enabled 
to  welcome  here,  just  where  they  were  most  needed  in  the 
rapidly  settled  towns  and  plantations  of  New  England,  those 
scholarly  men  who  aas  ministers  and  teachers"  proved 
to  be  the  best  guides  and  fosterers  of  the  institutions  which 
alike  in  Church  and  State  have  directed  the  development  of 
this  section  of  our  country,  and  have  had  a  paramount  in 
fluence  for  good  over  its  most  extended  sections  through 
pioneers  trained  here.  After  those  dozen  years  of  the 

1  Winthrop,  i.  166.  2  Records,  ii.  76. 


ADMINISTRATION   UEDER  THE   CHARTER.  249 

earliest  rapid  immigration,  the  process  was  suddenly  ar 
rested,  and  the  concourse  ceased,  because  men  of  New 
England  principles  found  congenial  occupation  for  them 
selves  in  the  stirring  scenes  of  revolution  in  the  mother 
country.  Indeed,  there  was  a  considerable  return  flood  of 
active  and  fervent  spirits  setting  thither.  Names  found  in 
the  catalogue  of  the  graduates  of  the  first  years  of  Har 
vard  College  are  conspicuous  on  the  public  stage  of  affairs 
in  England  ;  and  other  names  familiar  here  of  those  who 
roamed  these  wilderness  pathways  are  connected  with  the 
tragedies  of  the  times.  Venner,  the  wild  leader  of  the 
Fifth  Monarchy  rising,  had  been  a  cooper  in  Salem.  We 
are  to  meet  in  these  pages  with  the  prominent  influence  in 
our  earliest  years  of  Sir  Henry  Vane  and  Hugh  Peter,  who 
suffered  in  England  as  traitors.  Sir  George  Downing,  of 
Harvard's  first  class,  won  distinctions  rather  than  honors. 

But  going  back  to  the  twelve  of  our  first  years  when  the 
immigration  was  so  rapid  and  numerous,  and  in  general  so 
welcome,  we  take  the  count  of  Johnson,  in  his  "  Wonder- 
Working  Providence,"  as  trustworthy,  for  he  had  the  means 
and  purpose  of  accuracy.  He  writes  of  - 

"  The  transportation  of  these  Armies  of  the  great  Jehova,  for 
fifteen  years'  space  to  the  year  1G43,  about  which  time  England 
began  to  endeavour  after  Reformation,  and  the  Souldiers  of  Christ 
were  set  at  liberty  to  bide  his  battels  at  home,  for  whose  assistance 
some  of  the  chiefe  worthies  of  Christ  returned  back ;  the  number 
of  Ships  that  transported  passengers  in  this  space  of  time,  as  is 
supposed,  is  298.  Men,  women,  and  children  passing  over  this 
wide  Ocean,  as  near  as  at  present  can  be  gathered,  is  also  supposed 
to  be  21,200,  or  thereabout."  l 

For  these  multitudes,  composed  of  strongly-marked  indi 
vidualities,  groups,  and  companies,  whether  strangers  to 
each  other  previously,  or  bound  in  fellowship,  the  General 
Court,  representing  the  governing  board  of  an  original 

1  Wonder- Working  Providence,  p.  31. 


250  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

trading  company,  was  to  assume  the  office  of  legislation 
and  administration.  That  the  trust  was  discharged  so 
wisely  and  so  well,  demands  our  grateful  recognition.  We 
are  soon  to  deal  successively  with  four  episodes  in  that 
administration  which  are  at  least  exceptional  as  to  our  com 
mendation  of  it.  Yet  it  is  but  fair  to  regard  them  as 
exceptional  incidents  in  the  matter  and  course  of  legis 
lation,  though  the  spirit  of  severity  and  bigotry  which 
prompted  them  was  the  ruling  element  of  the  whole  of  it. 
The  Court  had  much  more  to  do  than  to  deal  with  heretics, 
dissentients,  and  disturbers  of  its  peace.  For  one  who 
would  instruct  himself  upon  the  responsibilities  and  trusts 
committed  to  the  magistrates  —  advised  on  emergency  by 
the  elders  —  there  are  two  chief  sources  of  information  now 
provided.  The  one  is  the  Records  of  the  General  Court,  by 
no  means  repelling  even  an  ordinary  literary  interest  by 
their  mustiness,  but  with  many  matters  suggestive  of  some 
romantic  elements  of  the  time,  and  provocative  of  humor. 
The  other  source  of  information  is  found  in  the  numerous 
histories  of  the  old  towns  of  the  State  generously  published 
by  those  satisfied  with  if  not  even  proud  of  their  contents. 
The  earliest  pages  of  these  annals  of  our  original  munici 
palities  show  about  an  equal  division  between  matters  of 
local  concern  managed  wholly  by  the  inhabitants,  and 
those  which  indicate  the  agency  and  authority  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  either  necessary,  or  interposed,  or  solicited  in 
the  oversight  of  their  affairs.  From  these  two  sources  one 
may  easily  learn  how  multifarious  were  the  interests  of 
infant  and  growing  civil  communities,  of  neighborhoods 
and  of  scattered  settlements  committed  to  the  Court  for 
direction  and  disposal.  There  are  pages  of  the  Records 
referring  to  matters  to  us  so  petty  and  trivial  as  to  cause 
us  to  marvel  how  men  who  really  had  serious  and  profit 
able  subjects  to  engage  their  time  and  thought  could  for 
a  moment  entertain  them.  But  the  most  trivial  of  these 
matters  had  some  relation  to  great  concerns  of  right  be- 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  251 

tween  man  and  man,  and  the  equities  of  justice.  A  smile 
is  often  provoked  from  us  when  we  read  of  the  recourse  for 
relief  which  the  Court  found  in  committing  to  two  or  three 
most  trustworthy  men  in  a  settlement  the  authority  "  to  end 
small  causes,"  -  —  that  is,  to  dispose  of  variances  involving  a 
specified  amount  of  money.  The  Court  set  itself  first  scru 
pulously  to  deal  with  the  rights  of  the  Indians,  to  protect 
them  from  extortion  and  oppression,  and,  always  excepting 
the  wars  which  it  honestly  believed  were  thrust  upon  them 
by  the  savages,  it  contributed  often  and  largely  by  its  enact 
ments  for  the  general  benefit  of  these  forlorn  and  intract 
able  children  of  the  forest.  The  Court  assumed  for  many 
years  the  office  of  guardianship  for  widows  and  orphans, 
the  settlement  of  estates,  the  jealous  watch  over  the  inter 
ests  of  the  unfortunate  and  the  insane,  and  in  many  cases' 
the  difficult  work  of  arbitration  in  personal  and  local  dis" 
putes.  Indeed,  one  may  gather  from  the  miscellaneous  and 
comprehensive  materials  of  the  Records,  that  the  Court, 
though  of  course  on  a  much  reduced  and  provincial  scale, 
had  items  of  business,  of  debate,  and  legislation  before  it 
comparable  with  the  responsibility  and  routine  which  en 
gage  a  modern  legislature  of  a  State,  and  even  the  Parlia 
ment  of  a  nation.  Selecting  from  those  Records  and  gath 
ering  together  all  the  references  to  fortifications,  and  an 
elaborate  military  organization,  local  and  central,  with 
orderly  drill  and  trainings,  provisions  for  subsistence,  arms, 
ordinance,  and  ammunition,  with  rules  for  inspection,  a 
board  and  articles  of  war,  we  obtain  a  formidable  view  of 
all  the  essentials  involved  in  the  system  of  a  militia  and 
a  standing  army.  Competent,  brave,  and  faithful  officers 
were  never  lacking,  and  the  trained  bands  of  every  town 
were  ever  ready  for  regular  and  emergent  service.  An  apt 
method  was  found  for  exciting  alarms  and  for  spreading 
intelligence.  Drafts  were  readily  responded  to.  Surgeons 
and  chaplains  were  provided  on  all  needful  occasions,  and 
the  pay-roll  was  honored. 


252  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

The  Court  early  and  continuously  gave  its  attention,  and, 
when  needful,  its  patronage,  to  the  development  of  mining 
wealth,  to  promoting  manufactures,  iron-works,  and  the 
making  of  salt ;  and  there  were  instances  in  which  it  antici 
pated  patent  and  royalty  laws  by  protecting  ingenuities, 
devices,  and  inventions.  Though  one  might  naturally  sup 
pose  that  the  straits  and  necessities  of  early  colonial  life 
on  rough  soil  and  with  raw  materials  would  have  compelled 
the  exercise  of  all  human  energies  for  self-support,  yet,  as 
one  of  the  chief  dreads  of  the  authorities  was  that  of  un- 
thriftiness  in  any  part  of  the  community,  its  rule  was  severe 
in  exacting  industry  and  punishing  idleness.  A  vagrant,  a 
spendthrift,  a  loiterer, "  an  unprofitable  fowler,"  an  habitual 
drunkard,  —  of  which  last  there  were  very  few,  —  had  before 
him  as  warnings  the  bilboes,  the  stocks,  the  cage,  the 
stool  of  humility,  or  the  lettered  badge  of  disgrace.  The 
Court  also  learned  by  practice  some  skill  in  the  arts  of 
diplomacy.  It  had  often  delicate  relations  with  the  other 
colonies,  with  French  and  Dutch,  as  neighbors  or  enemies, 
with  formidable  Indian  sachems.  And  this  diplomatic 
skill,  lacking  nothing  in  intrigue,  pleading,  self-justification, 
and  remonstrance,  of  its  practice  among  nations  and 
princes,  was  brought  into  full  exercise,  in  the  relations 
of  the  Colony  to  the  mother  country.  Indeed,  it  was  with 
full  reason  that  Charles  II.  was  prompted  to  object,  when 
messengers  of  Massachusetts  as  its  agents  at  his  court 
hedged  and  dickered  about  their  instructions,  that  he  could 
not  deal  with  them  on  the  footing  which  they  assumed  as 
ambassadors  of  a  foreign  and  independent  power,  but  sim 
ply  as  subjects  held  to  obedience. 

Following  the  legislation  of  the  Colony  Court  into  its 
workings  and  effects  in  the  towns  where  it  directed,  sup 
plemented,  or  enforced  the  powers  of  self-government  left 
to  them  severally,  the  town  histories,  to  which  reference 
has  been  made,  give  us  much  interesting  and  instructive 
information.  Though  many  of  the  pages  of  those  histories 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  253 

are  similar  in  their  contents  and  tenor,  covering  the  same 
struggles  and  incidents  of  the  settlements,  yet  they  have 
several  special  points  in  recording  conditions  and  experi 
ences.  As  the  population  of  the  Colony  increased,  two 
principal  conditions  would  regulate  their  dispersion. 
Straggling  and  camping  in  the  wilderness  at  each  man's 
pleasure  were  neither  allowable  nor  safe.  The  Colonists 
did  not  expect  to  obtain  much  of  their  subsistence  by 
hunting,  but  relied  upon  the  savages  to  gather  peltry  for 
them.  One  condition  for  a  new  settlement  was,  that 
families  should  be  near  enough  in  their  dwellings  to  a 
common  centre  to  attend  on  Sabbath  worship,  and  to  be 
rallied  in  case  of  an  alarm.  The  other  condition  was, 
that  each  townsman  might  have,  not  too  distant  for  over 
sight,  his  acres  of  meadow,  upland,  tillage,  and  woodland. 
It  was  soon  discovered  that  the  soil  of  the  Colony  was 
neither  rich  nor  easily  tilled,  nor  favorable  to  raising  stock 
in  the  places  first  occupied.  So  bottom  lands,  with  meadow 
and  stream,  with  falling  waters  to  be  dammed  for  saw 
mills  and  grist-mills,  were  at  once  desirable.  The  grant 
of  bounds  for  a  township  was  made  by  the  Court  to  peti 
tioners,  the  prime  and  invariable  condition  being  that  the 
settlers  should  have  and  support  a  competent  and  able 
minister.  Then,  partly  by  statute  and  partly  by  usage  and 
precedent,  a  partition  was  established  between  the  matters 
of  business  and  management  in  which  the  inhabitants  of 
each  town  should  be  left  to  their  own  liberty  and  discre 
tion,  and  those  which  the  General  Court  still  held  under 
its  control.  These  beginnings  were  in  all  cases  severe, 
yet  were  met  with  firm  courage,  with  patience  and  general 
cheerfulness.  The  meeting-house  and  the  school-house 
were  soon  raised.  The  poorest  piece  of  land  —  generally 
a  sand-hill,  for  easy  digging  —  was  set  apart  for  a  burial- 
place,  and  before  a  generation  rested  in  it  the  homes  of  the 
living  had  been  made  comfortable. 

There  was  one  subject  of  Puritan  legislation  which,  for 


254  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

the  intelligent,  generous,  and  far-looking  spirit  of  the  high 
est  public  interest  which  prompted  it,  has  ever  since  been 
regarded  as  largely  redeeming  their  administration  from 
the  burden  of  reproach  for  its  narrowness  and  austerity. 
It  is  the  order  of  the  General  Court  of  November,  1647, 
providing  for  what  has  since  been  known  as  the  system 
of  common  schools,  to  be  supported  by  public  charges  in 
every  municipality.  This  single  provision,  however,  is  but 
suggestive  of  a  general  and  comprehensive  characteristic 
and  distinction  of  the  Puritan  polity  and  principles.  He  has 
been  but  a  superficial  reader  of  the  form  and  development 
of  Massachusetts  Puritanism  who  has  not  penetrated  to 
the  evidence  of  the  fact  that  that  Puritanism,  both  in  its 
secular  and  its  religious  principles,  provided  some  self- 
restraining,  self-corrective  agencies  and  influences  which 
were  constantly  reducing  its  bigotry  and  harshness.  Puri 
tanism  provoked  and  engaged  a  vigorous  'activity  of  the 
intellect,  a  constant,  teasing,  restless  inquisitiveness  of 
the  spirit,  sure  to  result  in  variances,  protests,  and  even 
eccentricities  of  individualism  in  opinion.  There  was  no 
torpidity  of  conscience  or  of  mind  possible  under  it.  It 
followed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  even  those  of  ordinary 
mental  vigor  and  of  average  ability  who  were  constantly 
taught  and  exhorted  by  the  pulpit,  and  in  private  confer 
ence,  on  subjects  which  engaged  their  best  thoughts  and 
feelings,  should  occasionally  find  questioning,  doubt,  dis 
sent,  arising  within  them  in  their  efforts  to  digest  and 
assimilate  the  instruction  offered  to  them.  Those  of  a 
bolder  or  more  acute  activity  of  the  reasoning  faculties 
would  venture  into  the  regions  of  speculation,  and  often 
bring  themselves  dangerously  within  the  borders  of  heresy. 
So  we  find  by  careful  search  that  the  so-called  Liberalism, 
or  Rationalism,  which  is  generally  represented  as  coming 
to  its  full  and  bold  development  in  Massachusetts  only  near 
the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  been  working  in 
preparatory  phases  and  stages  of  individual  freedom  and 


ADMINISTRATION    UNDER   THE    CHARTER.  255 

enlargement  of  opinion  from  the  first  age.  The  dissenting 
or  heretical  subjects  of  Puritan  discipline,  with  whom  the 
future  pages  of  this  volume  are  so  largely  to  deal,  will 
abundantly  illustrate  this  assertion.  The  honored  and 
able  magistrate,  Mr.  Pynchon,  was  the  first  in  the  un 
broken  line  of  heretics  here  on  the  Calvinistic  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement.  Had  the  Puritans  sought  only  to  se 
cure  uniformity  of  opinion,  they  would  have  favored  slug 
gishness  rather  than  a  restless  activity  of  mind.  In  all 
that  they  did  for  the  promotion  of  common  schools  and 
for  the  higher  stages  of  education  they  were  offering  not 
only  the  means,  but  the  temptation  for  the  vigorous  testing 
of  their  own  principles. 

More  than  thirty  years  after  the  College  and  the  com 
mon  schools  of  Massachusetts,  with  the  printing-press  at 
Cambridge,  had  begun  their  enlightening  work,  Sir  Wil 
liam  Berkeley,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  with  different 
subjects,  materials,  and  objects  in  view  than  those  which 
engaged  the  Puritan  legislators,  had  written  to  the  Com 
missioners  of  Foreign  Plantations  in  London  :  — 

**  I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I 
hope  we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years ;  for  learning  has 
brought  disobedience  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them  and  libels  against  the  best  governments.  God  keep  us  from 
both  !  " 

But  the  founders  of  Massachusetts  did  not  wait  till 
the  date  of  the  order  of  1647  to  show  their  zeal  for  the 
interests  of  education.  What  that  order  was  designed  to 
effect  had  been  substantially  long  before  anticipated.  Be 
sides  the  College,  dating  from  1636,  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  from  1635,  and  the  Roxbury  Latin  School,  from 
1645,  there  had  been  more  or  less  care  taken  in  most  of 
the  towns,  either  by  "dames'"  schools,  or  by  "grammar" 
teachers,  and  in  every  home,  for  the  elementary  training 
of  children.  One  year  before  the  order  of  1647,  —  namely, 


256  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

in  November,  1646,  —  we  find  on  the  Records  the  follow 
ing  entry :  — 

"  This  Courte,  being  sensible  of  the  necessity  and  singuler  use 
of  good  literature  in  managing  the  things  of  greatest  concernment 
in  the  commonwealth,  as  also  perceiving  the  fewness  of  persons 
accomplished  to  such  imployments,  especially  for  future  times, 
have  thought  meete  to  propose  to  all  and  every  of  our  reverend 
elders  and  brethren  that  due  care  be  had  from  time  to  time  to 
improve  and  exercise  such  students,  especially  in  divinity,  as 
through  the  good  hand  of  God  may  issue  forth  of  the  colledges, 
that  so,  for  want  of  imployment  or  maintenance,  they  be  not  forced 
from  us,  and  we  left  destitute  of  help  that  way  :  to  all  which  in 
tents  and  purposes  every  church  which  hath  but  one  officer,  and 
can  conveniently  bear  the  charge  of  such  scholler  (which  we  hope 
most  may  do),  is  hereby  desired  to  request  a  pore  scholler  to  be 
helpful  to  their  officer,  that  so  they  may  improve  their  gifts,  and 
the  church  have  some  proof  of  them  against  times  of  neede."  1 

But  College  and  Latin  schools,  with  their  special  purposes 
of  providing  for  the  succession  of  the  ministry,  would  have 
had  but  unrewarding  subjects  of  their  care  among  an  igno 
rant  stock  of  common  people ;  therefore  provision  of  the 
broadest  and  most  comprehensive  character  must  be  made 
for  the  education  of  every  child  growing  up  in  the  juris 
diction. 

The  preamble  of  the  order  now  to  be  copied  arrests  our 
attention  by  its  quaintness  and  point,  as  follows :  — 

"It  being  one  chiefe  project  of  that  ould  deluder,  Satan,  tokeepe 
men  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  as  in  former  times  by 
keeping  them  in  an  unknowne  tongue,  so  in  these  latter  times  by 
perswading  from  the  use  of  tongues,  that  so  at  least  the  true  sence 
and  meaning  of  the  originall  might  be  clouded  by  false  glosses  of 
Saint-seeming  deceivers,  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the 
grave  of  our  fathers  in  the  church  and  commonwealth,  the  Lord 
assisting  our  endeavors ! " 

1  Records,  ii.  167. 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  257    . 

The  Court  does  not  cite  any  "  Scripture  "  as  a  warrant 
for  attributing  to  "  that  ould  deluder  "  the  particular  form 
of  malignity  here  ascribed  to  him.  He  certainly  has  found 
no  difficulty  in  communicating  with  men  in  all  known  lan 
guages,  and  this  may  be  an  illustration  of  the  truth  that 
when  any  one  has  acquired  a  bad  reputation  he  may  be 
charged  with  mischief  which  he  never  did.  But  in  its  touch 
of  satire  the  Court  struck  at  the  "  deluder  "  through  the 
Roman  Church  as  an  alias.  The  order  proceeds :  — 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered,  that  every  towneship  in  this  jurisdic 
tion,  after  the  Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty 
householders,  shall  then  forthwith  appoint  one  within  their  towne 
to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to  write  and  reade, 
whose  wages  shall  be  paid  either  by  the  parents  or  masters  of  such 
children,  or  by  the  inhabitants  in  generall,  by  way  of  supply,  as 
the  major  part  of  those  that  order  the  prudentials  of  the  towne 
shall  appoint ;  provided  those  that  send  their  children  be  not 
oppressed  by  paying  much  more  than  they  can  have  them  taught 
for  in  other  townes  :  and  it  is  further  ordered,  that  where  any 
towne  shall  increase  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  families  or 
householders,  they  shall  set  up  a  grammer  schoole,  the  master 
thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  farr  as  they  may  be  fited 
for  the  university,  provided  that  if  any  towne  neglect  the  perform 
ance  hereof  above  one  yeare,  that  every  such  towne  shall  pay  five 
pounds  to  the  next  schoole  till  they  shall  performe  this  order."  l 

This  order  was  followed  by  others  from  time  to  time, 
making  it  compulsory  upon  all  parents  and  masters  to  send 
their  children  to  school,  and  investing  town  officers  with 
authority  to  enter  houses  to  see  that  the  requisition  was 
complied  with.  The  records  of  many  towns  in  the  early 
years  of  poverty  and  hardship  show  how  faithfully  this 
order  was  obeyed.  And  there  are  cases  of  the  interposi 
tion  of  the  authorities  when  it  failed  of  its  purpose,  under 
peculiarly  difficult  circumstances.  Yet  compliance  was  al 
ways  insisted  upon,  with  penalty  for  neglect. 

1  Records,  ii.  203. 
17 


258  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

We  might  almost  condone  the  ungenial  and  melancholy 
act  of  Puritan  legislation  in  forbidding  the  observance  of 
Christmas,  by  offsetting  it  with  the  occasion  for  fun,  rail 
lery,  and  satire  which  the  act  has  furnished  for  so  many  of 
later  generations,  including  some  of  the  descendants  of  the 
Puritans.  Of  course  their  antipathy  to  the  observance  of 
that  and  of  like  Church  days  had  been  formed  in  Eng 
land,1  and  concerned  wholly  the  extra  Scriptural  and 
ecclesiastical  usage  which  had  devised  them,  and  the  ex 
cesses  of  jollity,  revelry,  and  wild  indulgence,  which,  as 
we  read,  caused  all  the  jails  of  the  kingdom  to  be  more  full 
on  the  day  following  Christmas  than  on  any  other  day  of 
the  year.  In  the  view  of  the  Puritans  the  mission  of  the 
Saviour,  to  rescue  the  elect  few  out  of  a  doomed  and  dying 
race,  was  too  grave  a  one  to  be  in  any  way  associated  with 
mirthful  observances,  and  a  serious  celebration  of  it  would 
not  have  attractions  for  those  not  in  sympathy  with  them. 
Before  quoting  from  the  Records  the  order  about  Christ 
mas,  our  attention  may  be  drawn  to  the  date  of  it,  which 
was  in  May,  1659.  This  being  nearly  thirty  years  after 
the  first  settlement  of  the  Colony,  we  might  wonder  why 
they  had  so  long  delayed  to  bring  their  legislation  to  bear 
on  a  matter  about  which  Puritan  antipathy  was  so  strong. 
The  explanation  may  be  found  in  reminding  ourselves  that 
the  space  of  time  which  had  elapsed  since  the  settlement, 
and  the  coming  in  of  new  elements  of  population,  —  sailors, 
transient  residents,  and  others  with  strong  attachments 
to  the  ways  of  their  old  home,  —  had  introduced  practices 
which  had  begun  to  occasion  alarm.  The  order  already 
partially  copied  is  as  follows :  — 

"  For  preventing  disorders  arising  in  severall  places  within  this 
jurisdiction,  by  reason  of  some  still  observing  such  festivalls  as 
were  superstitiously  kept  in  other  countrys,  to  the  great  dishonnor 
of  God  and  offence  of  others,  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court 

1  See  ante,  p.  109. 


ADMINISTRATION   UNDER   THE    CHARTER.  259 

and  the  authority  thereof,  that  whosoever  shall  be  found  observing 
any  such  day  as  Christmas  or  the  like,  either  by  forbearing  of 
labour,  feasting,  or  any  other  way,  upon  any  such  accounts  as 
aforesaid,  every  such  person  so  offending  shall  pay  for  every  such 
offence  five  shillings,  as  a  fine  to  the  country.  And  whereas,  not 
only  at  such  times,  but  at  severall  other  times  also,  it  is  a  custome 
too  frequent  in  many  places  to  expend  time  in  urilawfull  games,  as 
cards,  dice,  etc.,  it  is  therefore  further  ordered,  and  by  this  Court 
declared,  that  after  publication  hereof  whosoever  shall  be  found 
in  any  place  within  this  jurisdiction,  playing  either  at  cards  or  at 
dice,  contrary  to  this  order,  shall  pay  as  a  fine  to  the  country  the 
some  of  five  shillings  for  every  such  offence."  A 

Among  the  demands  made  upon  the  Court  by  the  Com 
missioners  of  Charles  II.  sent  over  here  in  1665,  to  be 
noticed  later  in  another  connection,  was  one  requiring 
"  that  the  poenalty  for  keeping  Christmas,  being  directly 
against  the  lawe  of  England,  may  be  repealed."2  The 
Court,  however,  took  time  for  acting  deliberately  on  this 
injunction ;  for  it  was  not  till  after  further  pressing,  and  in 
May,  1681,  that  it  consented  that  "  the  law  against  keeping 
Christmas  be  left  out."  At  the  same  time  the  law  for 
putting  to  death  Quakers  returning  from  banishment  was 
repealed.3 

A  subject  for  legislation  which  presents  itself  on  the 
pages  of  the  first  volume  of  our  statute-books,  and  has 
never  since  failed  to  find  a  place  on  them,  is  that  relating 
to  the  sale  and  use  of  intoxicating  drinks.  A  candid 
reader  is  forced  to  admit  that  there  has  been  no  advance  in 
any  wise  and  practical  measures  for  dealing  with  the  evil. 
The  fathers  anticipated  every  device  and  scheme  and  safe 
guard  and  penalty  that  has  since  been  put  on  trial  by  their 
posterity,  —  with  one  signal  exception.  The  method  of 
legal  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  through 
out  the  jurisdiction  was  never  attempted,  or  even  sug 
gested.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  very  plain  from  many  sig- 

1  Eecords,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  366.          2  Ibid.,  ii.  212.          8  Ibid.,  v.  322. 


260  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

nificant  intimations  that  the  fathers  considered  such  bever 
ages  as  not  only  innocent  but  essential  things,  for  which 
gratitude  should  be  offered  to  the  Great  Provider.  They 
took  care  that  facilities  should  be  offered  for  the  abundant 
provision  of  them  in  all  fit  times,  occasions,  and  places, 
under  due  oversight  and  control,  always,  however,  under 
allowance  from  the  Court  for  sale  at  ordinaries,  trucking- 
houses,  etc.  More  than  this,  the  Court  took  order  that  the 
price  of  beer,  etc.,  should  be  regulated  by  its  proper  strength 
of  materials  used  in  the  brewing  of  it.  We  might  even  be 
surprised  to  notice  from  multiplied  tokens  how  abundant 
and  freely  distributed  in  all  places  were  these  spirituous 
beverages,  from  our  earliest  days.  One  must  have  been  in 
straits  in  hard  and  lonely  scenes  to  have  lacked  them.  In 
accounting  for  this  fact  we  have  to  remind  ourselves  how 
soon  a  brisk  commerce  was  established  with  the  Canaries 
and  the  West  Indies,  and  how  well  the  skill  of  English 
brewers  and  distillers  was  appreciated  here.  It  has  often 
been  asserted,  that,  although  liquors  were  used  so  freely 
in  our  old  times,  the  deleterious  effects  of  them  were  not 
so  severe  or  so  common  as  now.  And  this  has  been  ex 
plained  by  the  suggestion  that  the  elders  were  favored  by 
pure  and  unsophisticated  liquors,  in  place  of  the  poisoned 
compounds  of  our  time.  While  the  cases  on  our  records 
of  punishment  inflicted  for  drunkenness  are  not  as  nu 
merous  as  we  might  have  expected  to  find  them,  we  meet 
with  enough  of  them,  —  of  persons  "  distempered  with 
drink,"  "  disguised  by  liquor,"  etc.,  —  to  show  that  the 
offence  was  a  grievous  one  and  a  reproach,  so  that  the 
penalty  often,  besides  a  mulct,  drew  some  form  of  humilia 
tion  and  disgrace. 

At  first  there  was  a  positive  prohibition  under  a  heavy 
fine  for  the  sale  or  gift  of  intoxicants  to  an  Indian. 
The  temptation  to  offend  in  this  particular  grew  steadily 
stronger  and  stronger  as  the  craving  and  passion  for  the 
stimulant  exhibited  itself  uncontrollably  in  the  savages 


ADMINISTRATION    UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  261 

from  the  very  first  indulgence,  till  they  would  run  any 
venture,  or  make  any  sacrifice,  to  gratify  it.  Step  by  step 
the  rigidness  of  the  prohibition  was  relaxed  by  allowing 
individual  white  men,  under  restrictions  of  place  and 
amount,  to  use  the  article  with  the  Indians  in  barter,  or 
pay  for  labor  or  hunting.  There  is  something  like  a 
generous  gush  of  feeling  in  an  order  of  the  Court  passed 
in  November,  1644,  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  Court,  apprehending  that  it  is  not  fit  to  deprive  the  In 
dians  of  any  lawfull  comfort  which  God  aloweth  to  all  men  by  the 
use  of  wine,  do  order  that  it  shalbe  lawfull  for  all  such  as  are  or 
shalbe  alowed  license  to  retaile  wines,  to  sell  also  to  the  Indians 
so  much  as  may  be  fit  for  their  needfull  use  or  refreshing."  l 

There  was,  however,  one  usage  of  good  fellowship  con 
nected  with  this  "  lawful  comfort,"  against  which  Puritan 
legislation  set  itself,  as  follows  :  — 

"Sept.  1639.  Forasmuch  as  it  is  evident  unto  this  Court  that 
the  common  custom  of  drinking  one  to  another  is  a  meere  uselesse 
ceremony,  and  draweth  on  that  abominable  practice  of  drinking 
healths,  and  is  also  an  occation  of  much  wast  of  the  good  crea 
tures,  and  of  many  other  sinns,  as  drunkenness,  quarlling,  blond- 
shed,  uncleannes,  mispence  of  precious  time,  etc.,  which  as  they 
ought  in  all  times  and  places  to  bee  prevented  carefully,  so  espe 
cially  in  plantations  of  churches  and  common  weales,  wherein 
the  least  knowne  evills  are  not  to  bee  tollerated  by  such  as  are 
bound  by  soleme  covenant  to  walke  by  the  rule  of  God's  word 
in  all  their  conversation,  — 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered,  that  no  resident  or  comer  into  the 
jurisdiction,  after  a  week's  residence,  shall  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  any  color  or  circumstance,  drink  to  any  other,  contrary  to 
the  intent  of  this  order,  upon  paine  of  twelve  pence  for  every 
offence."  2 

Whether  the  Court  came  to  realize  the  unreasonableness 
of  this  rule,  or  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  it,  we  read 

1  Records,  ii.  85.  2  j^    ^  271. 


262  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

upon  its  Records  of  May,  1645,  "  The  order  against  drink 
ing  one  to  another  is  hereby  repealed."  * 

It  is  possible  that  Winthrop  may  have  prompted  the 
Court  to  the  enactment  against  "  health-drinking ; "  for  he 
enters  in  his  Journal  as  early  as  October,  1630,  "  The 
governour,  upon  consideration  of  the  inconveniences  which 
had  grown  in  England  by  drinking  one  to  another,  re 
strained  it  at  his  own  table,  and  wished  others  to  do  the 
like,  so  as  it  grew,  by  little  and  little,  to  disuse."  Among 
his  papers  was  found  one  in  which  he  sets  down  two  rea 
sons  for  the  passage  of  a  law  against  "drinking  healths,"  — 
first,  because  it  is  "  an  empty  and  ineffectual  representa 
tion  of  serious  things  in  a  way  of  vanity ;  second,  because 
it  is  a  frequent  and  needless  temptation  to  dissemble  love." 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  ourselves  that  this  dis 
crediting  a  mere  form  associated  with  hospitality  was  not 
intended  to  reduce  the  generosity  or  cordiality  of  that 
virtue  as  duly  honored  among  the  Puritans. 

Much  of  the  attention  of  the  Court  was  given  to  a  jealous 
oversight  of  the  "  ordinaries,"  which  became  numerous, 
and  required  watchfulness  as  to  what  might  be  done  in 
them.  In  May,  1651,  we  find  the  following  order :  - 

"  Whereas,  it  is  observed  that  there  are  many  abuses  and  dis 
orders  by  dauncinge  in  ordinaryes,  whether  mixt  or  unmixt,  upon 
mariage  of  some  persons,  this  Court  doth  order  that  hence  for 
ward  there  shalbe  no  dauncinge  uppon  such  occasion,  or  at  other 
times  in  ordinaryes,  upon  the  paine  of  five  shilling  for  every 
person  that  shall  so  daunce  in  ordinaryes."  2 

Allowance  is  to  be  made  for  what  has  been  before  re 
ferred  to,  in  our  reading  in  the  Records  of  the  espionage 
practised  by  the  authorities  in  checking  irregularities  and 

1  Even  the  scruples  of  Quakers  to  like  practices  were  soon  found  to  yield. 
They  had  a  Quakers'  "Coffee  House"  in  London,  where  the  formula  between 
two  friends  seated  at  table,  with  the  appliances,  was,   "  Friend,  let  us  wish 
each  other  well,  and  take  another  glass." 

2  Records,  iii.  224. 


ADMINISTRATION  UNDER  THE   CHARTER.  263 

indulgences,  that  these  came  into  a  threatening  presence 
in  the  community  chiefly  by  the  visits  and  transient  resi 
dence  of  strangers.  The  letter  of  Governor  Endicott,  on  a 
previous  page,1  is  a  very  suggestive  reminder  of  what  were 
regarded  the  free  loose  speech  and  the  contumacious  be 
havior  of  seamen,  when  brought  into  intercourse  with  "  the 
saints."  All  the  sources  of  our  information  go  to  prove 
that  among  the  homes  and  families  of  the  fixed  population 
decorum  and  serious  ways  and  habits  were  almost  univer 
sally  spontaneous,  or  enforced  by  the  best  examples. 

The  v  Court  had  made  several  attempts  by  statutes  and 
penalties  to  forbid  extravagance  and  "  bravery  "  in  apparel. 
It  found  an  embarrassment  in  dealing  with  the  subject 
in  its  own  necessary  admission  and  allowance  that  there 
were  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  —  not  to  say  an  element 
of  "aristocracy" — in  the  Colony,  with  whose  class  pre 
rogatives  it  could  not  interfere,  but  in  fact  would  rather 
protect.  We  may  copy  at  some  length  a  law  passed  in 
October,  1651 :  - 

"  Although  severall  declarations  and  orders  have  bin  made  by 
this  Court  agaynst  excesse  in  apparill,  both  of  men  and  woemen, 
which  hath  not  yet  taken  that  efect  which  were  to  be  desired,  but 
on  the  contrary  we  cannot  but  to  our  greife  take  notice  that  in 
tolerable  excesse  and  bravery  have  crept  in  uppon  us,  and  espe 
cially  amongst  people  of  meane  condition,  to  the  dishonor  of  God, 
the  scandall  of  our  profession,  the  consumption  of  estates,  and  al 
together  unsuteable  to  our  povertie ;  and  although  we  acknowledge 
it  to  be  a  matter  of  much  difficultie,  in  regard  of  the  blindnes  of 
men's  mindes  and  the  stubbornnes  of  theire  wills,  to  set  down  exact 
rules  to  confine  all  sorts  of  persons,  yet  we  cannot  but  accoumpt 
it  our  duty  to  commend  unto  all  sorts  of  persons  a  sober  and 
moderate  use  of  those  blessings  which  beyond  our  expectation  the 
Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  afford  us  in  this  wilderness,  and  also 
to  declare  our  utter  detestation  and  dislike  that  men  or  women  of 
meane  condition,  educations,  and  callinges  should  take  uppon  them 

1  See  ante,  p.  146. 


264  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

the  garbe  of  gentlemen,  by  the  wearinge  of  gold  or  silver  lace  or 
buttons,  or  points  at  theire  knees,  to  walk  in  greate  bootes ;  or 
women  of  the  same  rank  to  weare  silke  or  tiffany  hoodes  or  scarfes, 
which  though  allowable  to  persons  of  greater  estates,  or  more  lib- 
erall  education,  yet  we  cannot  but  judge  it  intolerable  in  persons 
of  such  like  condition :  its  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and 
the  authoritie  therof,  that  no  person  within  this  jurisdiction,  or 
any  of  their  relations  depending  uppon  them,  whose  visible  estates, 
reall  and  personall,  shall  not  exceede  the  true  and  indefererit 
value  of  two  hundred  poundes,  shall  weare  any  gold  or  silver  lace, 
or  gold  or  silver  buttons,  or  any  bone  lace  above  two  shillings  per 
yard,  or  silke  hoodes  or  scarfes,  uppon  the  penalty  of  ten  shillings 
for  every  such  offence ;  and  every  such  delinquent  to  be  presented 
by  the  graund  jury." 

Still  recognizing  the  difficulty  of  denning  particular  rules 
applicable  to  persons  of  different  qualities  and  estates,  the 
selectmen  of  the  towns  are  required  to  be  observant  of  the 
apparel  of  persons  who  exceed  their  rank  or  ability  in  this 
matter,  and  to  assess  them  at  the  same  rate  as  those  to 
whom  such  luxury  is  suitable  and  allowed. 

"  Provided  that  this  law  shall  not  extend  to  -the  restraynt  of 
any  magistrate,  or  any  public  officer  of  this  jurisdiction,  their 
wives  and  children,  who  are  left  to  their  discretion  in  wearinge 
of  apparill,  or  any  settled  military,  or  souldier  in  the  time  of  mili 
tary  servise,  or  any  other  whose  education  and  imployment  have 
been  above  the  ordinary  degree,  or  whose  estates  have  been  con 
siderable,  though  now  decayed."  l 

One  can  scarcely  fail  to  see  in  this  wholly  impracticable 
piece  of  legislation  a  prudent  and  strong  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  Court  to  check  and  interdict  those  manifestations 
of  folly,  improvidence,  and  wastefulness  which  struck  at 
the  security  and  prosperity  of  the  still  struggling  Colony. 
The  effective  way  of  dealing  with  the  excess  aimed  at 
would  have  been  for  those  who  were  exempted  from  the 

1  Records,  iii.  243,  244. 


ADMINISTRATION    UNDER   THE   CHARTER.  265 

restraint  of  the  law  to  have  set  a  better  example.  The 
incipient  democracy  of  the  Colony  would  not  brook  the 
class  favoritism  allowed  by  the  law.  Indeed,  in  this  ex 
emption  and  immunity  granted  to  a  privileged  class  there 
was  a  marked  relaxing  of  one  of  the  former  orders  of  the 
Court  on  this  matter  of  apparel.  In  1639  the  Court  had 
given  ear  to  complaints  against  "  lace  and  points,"  against 
short  sleeves,  "  whereby  the  nakedness  of  the  arm  may  be 
discovered,"  and  against  "  immoderate  great  sleeves,  im 
moderate  great  breches,  knots  of  ryban,  broad  shoulder 
bands  and  rayles,  silk  races,  double  ruffes  and  cuffes,"  etc. 
Tailors  and  seamstresses  were  forbidden  to  make  such  arti 
cles,  and  all  who  had  them  were  ordered  to  alter  them.1 

The  Scripture  warrant  for  this  prohibition,  so  far  at  least 
as  it  concerned  women,  was  Ezekiel  xiii.  18. 

As  late  as  1675,  amid  the  distresses  of  the  Indian  war, 
the  Court,  in  seeking  to  learn  why  the  hand  of  God  was 
laid  so  heavily  upon  them,  finds  this  as  one  cause :  — 

"  Whereas,  there  is  manifest  pride  openly  appearing  amongst 
us  in  that  long  haire,  like  weomen's  haire,  is  worne  by  some  men, 
either  their  owne  or  others  haire  made  into  perewiggs,  and  by 
some  weomen  wearing  borders  of  hayre,  and  their  cutting,  curl 
ing,  and  immodest  laying  out  theire  haire,  especcially  amongst  the 
younger  sort,  this  Court  doeth  declare  this  ill  custome  as  offen 
sive  to  them,  etc.  The  evill  of  pride  in  apparrell,  both  for  costli 
ness  in  the  poorer  sort,  and  vayne,  new,  strange  fashions,  both  in 
poore  and  rich,  with  naked  breasts  and  armes,  or,  as  it  were,  pin 
ioned  with  the  addition  of  superstitious  ribbons,"  etc.,  the  County 
Courts  are  charged  to  attend  to  this  grievance.2 

In  reading  this  specimen  of  curious  intermeddling  with 
matters  of  female  apparel  and  array,  frettings  about  which 
have  always  been  proved  utterly  powerless,  one  might  be 
inclined  to  forget  that  more  than  two  hundred  years  have 
passed  since  the  enactment.  Many  of  the  articles,  atti- 

1  Records,  i.  273,  274.  2  Records,  v.  59. 


266  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

tudes,  gestures,  and  adornments  described  are  by  no  means 
antiquated,  but  seem  to  be  before  us  even  in  exaggerated 
forms. 

We  have  now  had  presented,  generally  in  the  words  of 
those  who  prompted  and  guided  the  scheme  for  the  plant 
ing  of  a  Commonwealth  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts,  the 
principles  which  they  adopted  for  its  religious  administra 
tion  according  to  the  Biblical  model.  Our  pages  will  close 
with  a  review  of  the  protracted  and  sturdy  struggle  which 
the  authorities  maintained  against  the  King  of  England  in 
their  baffled  effort  to  uphold  their  Charter,  in  which  they 
had  found  a  basis  for  their  theocracy.  But  before  that 
catastrophe  came,  the  authorities  had  to  contend  with  a 
series  of  four  successive  conflicts,  which  in  fact  proved  to 
be  warnings  and  preparatory  occasions  of  that  catastrophe. 
These  conflicts  covered  all  the  subjects,  claims,  interests, 
and  matters  of  legislation  and  administration  which  entered 
into  the  life  of  their  theocracy.  The  validity  of  their 
Charter  and  their  mode  of  construing  it  were  brought  under 
question ;  the  right  of  the  magistrates  to  deal  in  the  prov 
ince  of  religion  was  denied ;  heresies  threatening  alarming 
immoralities  were  broached  among  them ;  fundamental 
principles  in  their  church  institution  were  set  at  nought ; 
and  last  of  all,  their  exclusive  dependence  upon  the  Bible 
for  light  and  guidance,  and  for  the  formalities  of  observ 
ance,  was  greatly  discredited. 


VIII. 

THE  BANISHMENT  OP  ROGER  WILLIAMS. 

ROGER  WILLIAMS  .was  the  first,  and,  through  the  whole 
period  of  the  theocracy,  the  most  conspicuous  person  to 
come  under  the  discipline  of  both  the  civil  and  ecclesias 
tical  powers  of  Massachusetts.  Whether  that  discipline 
was,  under  the  circumstances,  harsh  or  unjust,  or  whether 
a  candid  review  of  the  facts  of  the  case  will  show  that  he 
unwisely  or  pertinaciously  brought  its  severity  upon  him 
self,  is  a  question  about  which  the  means  of  forming  a  fair 
and  impartial  judgment  are  more  complete  than  in  most 
similar  cases  that  have  been  confused  in  their  historic  nar 
ration.  Certainly  a  full  compensation  has  accrued  to  him 
for  all  that  he  may  have  suffered  from  court  and  church 
penalties,  and  from  exile,  in  gathering  to  the  honor  of  his 
name  the  rich  laurels  of  being  virtually,  though  not  by  the 
tenure  of  a  legal  office,  the  founder  of  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  the  great  apostle  of  "  soul-freedom,"  or  of  un 
limited  toleration  for  conscience  and  religious  opinions. 
As  to  the  fulness  of  the  historic  material  relating  to  the 
subject,  it  may  be  said  here  that,  while  we  find  much  less 
of  information  and  of  references  in  detail  to  his  case  in  the 
Records  of  the  Court  than  we  might  naturally  expect,  we 
have  sidelights  from  other  sources  furnishing  us  exhaustive 
and  even  wearisome  reiterations  of  every  particular  and 
incident  in  the  controversy  to  which  he  was  a  party.  His 
own  letters,  the  pages  of  Winthrop's  Journal,  and  the  admi 
rably  edited  and  annotated  volumes  issued  by  the  Narra- 


268  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

gansett  Club,1  especially  those  which  contain  the  tracts  of 
Williams  and  Cotton  on  the  "  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecu 
tion,"  enable  us  to  stand  and  listen  as  contemporaries  to 
the  rehearsal  of  the  whole  story.  And  having  this  privi 
lege  of  historic  retrospect,  we  may  find  a  fit  and  pleasant 
preparation  for  re-reading  that  story  in  anticipating  it  by 
a  summary  statement  of  the  aspect  and  character  in  which 
Williams  presents  himself  to  us. 

Alike  for  the  noble  qualities  and  for  the  petty  infirmities 
singularly  blended  with  them,  he  is  to  us  an  admirable  and 
a  picturesquely  engaging  person.  He  was  wholly  free  of 
guile,  open,  sincere,  and  of  a  most  generous  disposition, 
with  traits  of  a  childlike  simplicity  and  tenderness.  The 
resolute  front  which  he  presented  to  those  who  opposed 
him  in  his  opinions  or  his  actions  had  in  it  nothing  of 
ugliness  or  perversity.  He  was  forbearing  and  magnani 
mous.  Stoutly  asserting  and  holding  to  convictions  hon 
estly  and  independently  formed  and  resolutely  maintained, 
his  weakness  showed  itself  only^  in  an  occasional  outflow 
of  sentiment  over  his  privations,  not  in  any  shrinking  from 
the  inflictions  they  brought  upon  him.  It  seemed  to  be  a 
joy  to  him  to  speak  with  a  yearning  affection  of  those  who 
he  believed  had  misjudged  or  wronged  him,  and  he  sought 
opportunities  to  do  them  kindly  and  very  valuable  service. 
With  him,  contention  was  a  strange  blending  of  duty  and 
satisfaction.  Though  all  the  powers  of  State  and*  Church 
were  engaged  against  him  in  Massachusetts,  with  many 
fretting  altercations  and  .the  final  infliction,  —  yet  not  with 
out  forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  authorities,  —  Williams 
never  had  there  a  single  personal  enemy.  His  spirit  was 
provocative,  and  his  pertinacity  could  exasperate,  but  his 
opponents  commended  his  patience  and  availed  themselves  of 
his  generosity.  What  strange  contrasts  of  scenes  and  com 
panionships  his  experience  and  career  present  to  us  !  How 

1  These  constitute  six  quarto  volumes  prepared  by  the  members  of  the 
Club,  and  published  in  sumptuous  form  in  Providence,  1866-74. 


THE  BANISHMENT   OF  ROGER   WILLIAMS.  269 

keenly  must  he  have  enjoyed,  in  his  visits  to  England,  his 
free  and  congenial  intercourse  with  such  friends  as  Crom 
well,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  Milton !  How  cheerfully,  from 
the  comforts  of  English  homes,  chambers,  and  food,  did  he 
return  to  his  wilderness  haunts,  the  guest  of  the  savages 
in  "  their  filthy,  smoky  holes,"  sharing  with  them  the  scant 
and  miscellaneous  diet  of  the  woods !  How  diligently, 
while  tossing  on  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  did  he  occupy 
his  long  voyage  in  writing  and  preparing  for  the  English 
press  his  "  Key  into  the  Language  of  America,"  being  his 
Indian  Grammar  and  Vocabulary  !  How  laboriously,  and 
with  but  a  haphazard  help  from  the  books  of  reference 
which  he  abundantly  cites,  did  he  catch  and  use  the  mo 
ments  out  of  public  business,  a  scattering  hospitality  in 
chamber  lodgings,  in  travel,  and  by  the  roadside,  to  pen  his 
sharp  and  often  stinging  tractates  in  his  controversy  with 
"  Master  Cotton  " !  Of  one  commodity  when  in  England 
we  may  be  sure  the  voyager  took  care  to  provide  himself 
with  a  full  supply,  that  is,  writing  paper ;  for  he  used  very 
much  of  it. 

His  biographers  have  been  numerous  and  zealous.  Each 
of  them  in  succession  has  introduced  some  fresh  errors  or 
misreadings  of  the  truth,  and  has  added  some  valuable 
helps  to  our  knowledge  of  facts.  His  opinions  and  his 
career  have  been  very  variously  set  forth  with  comments, 
with  a  singular  tendency  to  confuse  and  subordinate  the 
most  important  to  the  less  essential  matters  of  the  con 
troversy.  His  great  doctrine  of  "  soul-freedom  "  appears 
indeed  in  his  contention  here  with  court  and  church,  but 
quite  in  a  secondary  relation  to  other  grounds  of  variance. 
Many  have  supposed  him  to  have  been  banished  for  avow 
ing  the  tenets  of  the  Baptists,  and  to  have  been  the  founder 
here  of  that  denomination.  But  when  he  left  Massachu 
setts  he  was  still,  as  he  had  been,  a  Congregationalist  min 
ister,  in  full  accord  with  his  brethren  in  matters  of  doctrine. 
His  views  about  baptism  were  especially  erratic,  and  the 


270  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Baptist  denomination  would  have  but  slight  satisfaction  in 
claiming  his  membership,  much  less  his  leadership.  Some 
two  years  after  his  removal  to  Rhode  Island,  becoming 
distrustful  about  his  baptism  in  infancy,  he  subjected  him 
self  to  the  ordinance  as  administered  by  one  Ezekiel  Holly- 
man,  after  which  he  rebaptized  Hollyman  and  some  ten 
I  others.  Within  a  few  months  Williams  had  "scruples" 
about  the  matter,  as  Hollyman  had  not  been  himself  bap 
tized  when  he  administered  the  rite  to  Williams.  So  this 
conscientious  man  renounced  his  rebaptism,  and  remained 
through  his  life,  free  of  all  fellowships,  a  "  seeker  "  for  the 
truth.  Winthrop,  who  kept  anxious  watch  upon  the  doings 
of  the  unsettled  free-thinkers  gathering  at  Providence, 
says 1  that  "  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  wife  of  one 
Scott,  being  infected  with  Anabaptistry,  and  going  last  year 
to  live  at  Providence,"  induced  Williams  to  rebaptism  by 
Hollyman,  who  had  gone  from  Salem.  Williams  came  to 
believe  that  there  was  no  one  on  the  earth  qualified  to 
administer  the  rite.  No  one  can  be  surprised  that  the  now 
numerous  and  respected  fellowship  of  the  Baptists  crave 
the  honor  of  so  noble  a  founder  on  this  continent.  But 
if  they  accept  his  own  statement  of  his  views  he  would 
seem  rather  to  have  discredited  the  denomination  than 
to  have  assumed  its  leadership. 

The  birthplace,  parentage,  and  age  of  Roger  Williams 
have  as  yet  remained  in  obscurity,  and  according  to  such 
particulars  and  inferences  as  have  been  available  to  his 
biographers,  his  age  when  he  appears  in  Boston  has  been 
variously  taken  to  range  between  twenty-five  and  thirty 
years.  He  proceeded  from  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge, 
January,  1627,  as  Bachelor  of  Arts,  was  ordained  and 
beneficed,  but  driven  from  England  and  his  ministry,  as 
he  says,  by  dread  of  Archbishop  Laud.  He  had  known 
some  of  the  New  England  people,  but  seems  to  have  come 
hither  by  his  own  prompting.  He  arrived  at  Boston  with 
1  Winthrop,  i.  293. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF  ROGER   WILLIAMS.  271 

his  wife  Feb.  15,  1631,  with  the  repute  of  being  u  godly." 
Wilson,  the  teacher  of  the  First  Church,  having  gone  to 
England  to  bring  his  wife,  Williams  says  that  he  was 
invited  with  unanimity  to  fill  his  place.  There  is  no  record 
of  this  invitation  other  than  that  made  by  Williams  him 
self,  and  the  inference  naturally  is  that  he  was  informally 
conferred  with  on  the  subject.  In  a  letter  written  by  him  to 
Rev.  John  Cotton,  Jr.,  in  1671,1  after  referring  "  to  gains 
and  preferments  refused  in  universities,  city,  country,  and 
court,  in  Old  England  "  because  his  "  conscience  was  per 
suaded  against  the  national  church,"  he  adds  that  he  made 
a  similar  sacrifice  in  not  accepting  the  proffer  of  the  Bos 
ton  church.  The  reason  which  he  gives  for  his  refusal 
is,  "  because  I  durst  not  officiate  to  an  uriseparated  people, 
as  upon  examination  and  conference  T  found  them  to  be." 
Here  we  have  distinctly  brought  before  us  the  position 
assumed  by  the  Boston  church  toward  the  Church  of 
England,  as  one  of  Non-conformity,  not  of  Separation. 
Williams  was  a  positive  and  pronounced  Separatist.  He 
wished  the  Boston  church  to  renounce  all  communion  with 
the  English  Church,  to  humble  itself  penitently  for  ever 
having  held  such  communion,  and  to  forbid  her  members, 
on  occasional  visits  to  their  native  land,  to  join  in  the  old 
worship  and  ordinances.  Williams  never  yielded,  but  stood 
stoutly  by  his  principle  in  this,  and  when  he  had  a  church 
of  his  own  in  Salem,  he  rigidly  exacted  a  compliance  with 
it  from  all  whom  he  admitted  to  membership.  It  was  in 
this  antagonistic  attitude  that  Williams  introduced  himself 
to  his  friendly  countrymen  in  Boston,  and  it  certainly  was 
an  unpromising  beginning  here  of  the  career  of  one  who 
was  to  win  the  honor  of  an  apostle  of  "  soul-liberty  "  and 
unlimited  toleration.  The  impressions  at  once  formed  of 
him,  alike  of  certain  winning  and  lovable  personal  quali 
ties  and  of  his  rigid  individuality  and  pertinacity  of  opinion, 
continued  unchanged  through  his  whole  life.  He  never 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  March,  1871. 


272  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

came  into  genial  relations  with  his  associates  anywhere. 
He  never  really  identified  himself  with  their  general  aims 
and  interests.  As  the  name  "  Roger  Williams "  appears 
on  the  list  of  those  who  took  the  freeman's  oath,  some 
of  the  biographers  of  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island  have 
affirmed  that  he  was  thus  sworn  into  allegiance ;  but  that 
was  another  person  of  the  same  name,  and  of  quite  a 
different  career,  who  had  taken  the  oath  some  months 
before  the  arrival  of  his  ministerial  namesake.  In  his 
interview  with  members  of  the  Boston  church,  Williams 
must  have  disclosed  some  other  of  his  opinions ;  for 
Winthrop  makes  the  following  entry  in  his  Journal, 
April  12,  1631:i- 

"  At  a  court  holden  at  Boston  upon  information  to  the  gover- 
nour  that  they  of  Salem  had  called  Mr.  Williams  to  the  office  of  a 
teacher,  a  letter  was  written  from  the  court  to  Mr.  Endecott  to 
this  effect :  That  whereas  Mr.  Williams  had  refused  to  join  with 
the  congregation  at  Boston,  because  they  would  not  make  a  pub 
lic  declaration  of  their  repentance  for  having  communion  with  the 
churches  of  England  while  they  lived  there,  and,  besides,  had 
declared  his  opinion  that  the  magistrate  might  not  punish  the 
breach  of  the  Sabbath,  nor  any  other  offence,  as  it  was  a  breach 
of  the  first  table,  therefore  they  marvelled  they  would  choose  him 
without  advising  with  the  council,  and  withal  desiring  him  that 
they  would  forbear  to  proceed  till  they  had  conferred  about  it." 

This  was  a  court  of  the  magistrates  or  assistants,  at 
which  were  present  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Ludlow,  Nowell, 
Pynchon,  and  Bradstreet.  Two  different  views  may  be  and 
have  been  taken  of  this  proceeding.  One  is,  that  it  was  a 
high-handed  and  unwarranted  intermeddling  of  the  magis- 
tratical  authority  with  the  rights  of  an  independent  church. 
The  other  view  is  —  and  this  finds  support  in  the  fact  that 
there  is  no  entry  of  the  proceeding  on  the  records  of  the 
Court  —  that  it  was  simply  intended  as  an  unofficial  remon- 

i  Winthrop,  i.  52. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER    WILLIAMS.  273 

strance  and  expostulation  with  some  who  were  endanger 
ing  amicable  relations  and  the  public  interests.  There  is 
also  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  effect  of  this  interfer 
ence.  It  has  been  affirmed  that  Williams  was  instituted 
in  the  office  of  teacher,  as  successor  to  Higginson,  on  the 
same  day  on  which  the  letter  was  written,  and  also  that  the 
letter  stopped  the  proceedings.  However  this  may  have 
been,  Williams  left  Salem  in  season  to  present  himself  in 
Plymouth,  in  August,  1631,  where  he  was  received  into  the 
church,  and  assisted  its  teacher,  Ralph  Smith.  Williams 
says  that  while  in  Plymouth  he  labored  with  his  hands, 
engaged  in  trade,  and  companied  much  with  the  Indians, 
"  to  gain  their  tongue,"  and  engage  their  friendship,  which 
he  always  and  everywhere  most  happily  secured. 

The  same  conflict  of  opinions  and  sentiments  about  him 
self  which  Williams  had  excited  in  Boston  followed  him  in 
Plymouth.  His  guileless  and  affectionate  nature,  his  sin 
cerity  and  good  purposes,  were  appreciated,  and  so  were 
his  "  headiness,"  his  singularity  and  eccentricity,  and  his 
obstinacy  in  notions  and  judgments.  He  was  found  to  hold 
"  diverse  singular  opinions  which  he  sought  to  impose  on 
others."  Patient  Governor  Bradford  and  gentle  Elder 
Brewster  speak  of  him  kindly  and  hopefully,  but  intimate 
some  abatements  of  their  sympathy  and  confidence.  Brad 
ford  pronounced  him  "  godly  and  zealous,  having  many 
precious  parts,  but  very  unsettled  in  judgment."  When 
Williams,  at  his  own  request,  was  dismissed  from  the 
Plymouth  to  the  Salem  church,  the  letter  contained  a 
"  caution."  Some  of  the  members  being  unwilling  to 
dismiss  him,  Brewster  persuaded  them  to  do  so,  as  he 
feared  strife  from  elements  of  mischief  already  working 
from  Williams's  strange  opinions.  Winthrop  says  that 
Williams  was  in  Salem  by  November,  1633,  helping  Mr. 
Skilton  "  by  way  of  prophecy,"  but  "  not  in  any  office." 
This,  however,  he  acceded  to  in  a  year,  when  Skilton  died. 
He  had  united  with  Skilton  in  November,  1633,  in  objecting 

18 


274  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

to  a  friendly  semi-monthly  meeting  at  each  other's  homes, 
of  the  u  ministers  of  the  Bay,"  lest  it  should  grow  "  to  a 
presbytery,  or  superintendency,  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
churches'  liberties." 

It  was  probably  while  he  was  at  Plymouth,  where  his 
eldest  child  was  born,  that  Williams  had  written,  and 
shown  to  some  friends  who  were  alarmed  by  the  strange 
opinions  expressed  in  it,  "  a  large  Book  in  Quarto."  This 
was  undoubtedly  his  treatise  questioning,  or  rather  directly 
denying,  the  validity  of  the  King's  Patent,  under  which 
the  Company  held  and  could  maintain  its  territorial 
rights.  As  Williams's  expressed  opinions  on  this  highly 
critical  matter — asserted,  apologized  for,  yielded  up,  and 
then  re-asserted  —  were  substantially  the  chief  grounds  of 
the  Court's  dealings  with  him,  resulting  in  his  banish 
ment,  we  must  have  the  bearings  of  the  case  intelligently 
before  us.  The  "  treatise  "  itself  is  not  extant,  as  it  was 
probably  burned,  either  by  Williams  himself,  or  with  his 
consent,  by  the  Court.  We  know  its  spirit  and  purport  by 
the  references  to  it,  and  by  quotations  from  it.  Williams 
would  himself  be  very  ready  to  show  and  discuss  with 
others  any  product  of  his  busy  brain,  and  would  be  sturdy 
in  defending  it,  however  erratic  they  might  regard  it. 
After  he  had  returned  to  Salem  it  became  noised  abroad 
that  he  had  written  such  an  alarming  treatise,  and  it 
was  at  an  anxious  crisis  for  the  colony,  as  then  dreading 
interference  with  its  affairs  from  abroad,  when  every 
scruple  was  a  bombshell,  and  every  breeze  was  a  gale. 
Winthrop,  hearing  of  the  "  treatise,"  sent  to  Williams 
for  a  copy.  The  Governor  and  Assistants  at  a  meeting, 
Jan.  6,  1634,  —  not  an  official  one,  as  it  is  not  entered 
on  the  records,  —  perused  and  criticised  it.  The  Gover 
nor  reports  it  to  us,  for  its  matter  and  tenor.  He  says 
the  treatise  was  "formerly  written  to  the  governor  and 
council  of  Plymouth :  "  1  — 

1  Winthrop,  i.  122. 


THE    BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  275 

"  Wherein,  among  other  things,  he  disputes  their  right  to  the 
lands  they  possessed  here,  and  concluded  that,  claiming  by  the 
King's  grant,  they  could  have  no  title,  nor  otherwise,  except  they 
compounded  with  the  natives.  For  this,  taking  advice  with  some 
of  the  most  judicious  ministers  (who  much  condemned  Mr.  Wil 
liams'  errour  and  presumption),  they  gave  order  that  he  should  be 
convented  at  the  next  court,  to  be  censured,  etc.  There  were 
three  passages  chiefly  whereat  they  were  much  offended :  1.  for 
that  he  chargeth  King  James  to  have  told  a  solemn  publick  lye, 
because  in  his  patent  he  blessed  God  that  he  was  the  first  Christian 
prince  that  had  discovered  this  land ;  2.  for  that  he  chargeth  him 
and  others  with  blasphemye  for  calling  Europe  Christendom,  or  the 
Christian  world ;  3.  for  that  he  did  personally  apply  to  our  present 
king,  Charles,  these  three  places  in  the  Revelations,  viz  —  " 

We  are  able  to  supply  the  blank  which  follows  the 
abrupt  close  of  the  Governor.  Endicott,  one  of  the  Assist 
ants,  a  member  of  Mr.  Williams's  church,  not  being  pres 
ent  at  this  meeting  of  magistrates,  the  Governor,  a  week 
after  the  meeting,  wrote  him  a  letter,  which  has  come  to 
light.1  This  letter  adds  a  fourth  grievance  against  Wil 
liams  :  "  4.  for  concluding  us  all  heere  to  lye  under  a 
shine  of  unjust  usurpation  upon  others'  possessions."  The 
references  to  the  Revelations  are  also  supplied  as  follows : 
Chaps,  xvi.  13,  14 ;  xvii.  12,  13 ;  and  xviii.  9.  These 
passages  have  no  significance  here  except  as  admirably 
illustrating  that  Puritan  usage  in  quoting  Scriptures 
which  have  no  conceivable  connection  with  the  matter  in 
hand. 

A  doubt  might  reasonably  be  raised  whether  Roger  Wil 
liams  had  ever  read  with  intelligent  study  and  careful 
reflection  the  original  Charter  of  James  I.,  so  impertinent 
appear  his  strictures  upon  those  terms  of  it  of  which  he 
complains.  We  have  only  by  anticipation  to  look  forward 
to  his  maturer  life  of  experience,  and  converse  with  men 
^>f  pronounced  wills  and  individuality  like  his  own,  to  find 

J  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  February,  1873. 


276  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

him,  thirty  years  later,  petitioning  for,  welcoming,  and 
holding  several  offices  under  a  royal  charter  for  Rhode 
Island,  granted  under  precisely  the  same  terms  and  con 
ditions  as  those  of  the  Bay  Charter.  The  King  of  England 
did  not  claim  an  absolute,  but  only  a  relative,  ownership 
and  power  of  disposal  of  the  territory  granted  here.  His 
gift  to  those  who  received  it  was  limited  by  the  conditions 
under  which  he  claimed  to  bestow  it.  By  the  law  of  na 
tions  as  then  recognized,  the  fact  that  English  navigators 
had  first  sighted  the  coast  of  newly-discovered  land  gave 
to  the  monarch  whose  subjects  they  were  a  right  to  it 
above  that  of  other  sovereigns.  His  grant  of  a  portion  of 
it  to  an  incorporated  company  of  his  subjects  was  good 
against  the  trespassing  of  any  other  Englishmen  upon  it, 
and  against  the  inimical  intrusion  of  the  subjects  of  any 
other  European  monarchs.  Any  usufructuary  rights  of  a 
people  actually  resident  upon  or  claiming  the  territory, 
even  though  they  were  heathen,  were  to  be  recognized  and 
fairly  adjusted.  The  most  grievous  charges  of  Williams 
are  that,  against  James  I.  of  telling  "  a  solemn  publick  lye  " 
in  his  Patent,  and  that  against  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  of 
u  blasphemye,"  for  calling  Europe  "  Christendom,  or  the 
Christian  world."  Winthrop  writes  respecting  "the  grande 
Patent,"  that  it  might  contain  the  ground  for  such  charges, 
but  "  for  my  parte  I  never  sawe  it,  and  I  doubt  whether  he 
[Williams]  did  or  not."  1  That  Winthrop  had  reasons  for 
doubting  whether  Williams  had  ever  seen  James's  Patent, 
appears  from  the  fact  that  his  charge  of  a  u  lye  "  against 
the  monarch  is  based  upon  his  assuming  "  to  have  been  the 
first  Christian  prince  that  discovered  New  England."  But 
the  Patent  makes  no  reference  whatever  to  this  discovery ; 
and  in  neither  of  the  patents  is  Europe  spoken  of  as 
"  Christendom." 

All  that  is  pertinent  to  the  matter  at  issue  is  found  in 
the  following  extract  from  the  Patent  of  James  I.  :  — 

i  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  February,  1873. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  277 

"  Forasmuch  as  We  have  been  certainly  given  to  understand  by 
divers  of  our  good  Subjects  that  have  for  these  many  Yeares  past 
frequented  those  Coasts  and  Territoryes  between  the  Degrees  of 
Fourty  and  Fourty-eight,  that  there  is  noe  other  the  Subjects  of 
any  Christian  King  or  State,  by  any  authorise  from  their  Sover- 
aignes,  Lords,  or  Princes,  actually  in  Possession  of  any  of  the 
said  Lands  or  Precincts,  whereby  any  Right,  Claim,  Interest,  or 
Title  may,  might,  or  ought  by  that  means  accrue,  belong,  or 
appertaine  unto  them,  or  any  of  them.  [The  Patent  then  men 
tions  the  recent  devastations  by  war  and  pestilence,  which  have 
left  the  territory  for  many  leagues  together  without  inhabitant  or 
claimant,  thus  marking  the  fit  time  for  improving  land  so  depop 
ulated.]  In  Contemplacion  and  serious  Consideracion  whereof 
Wee  have  thought  it  fitt,  according  to  our  Kingly  Duty,  soe  much 
as  in  Us  lyeth,  to  second  and  followe  God's  sacred  Will,  rendering 
reverend  Thanks  to  his  Divine  Majestie  for  His  gracious  favour 
in  laying  open  and  revealing  the  same  unto  us,  before  any  other 
Christian  Prince  or  State,  by  which  Meanes  without  Offence,  and 
as  We  trust  to  his  Glory,  Wee  may  with  Boldness  goe  on  to  the 
settling  of  soe  hopeful  1  a  Work,"  etc. 

The  proviso,  recognizing  any  rightful  claims  of  other 
nationalities,  is  thus  stated  :  — 

"  Provided  always  that  any  of  the  Premises  herein  before  men 
tioned,  and  by  these  Presents  intended  and  meant  to  be  granted, 
be  not  actually  possessed  or  inhabited  by  any  other  Christian 
Prince  or  Estate."  * 

Williams  went  to  the  whole  length  of  affirming  that  the 
King's  Patent  gave  the  colonists  no  right  to  their  territory, 
"  but  that  the  Natives  are  the  true  owners  of  it,"  so  that 
the  colonists  had  committed  the  "  sinne  of  unjust  usurpa 
tion  upon  others'  possessions."  The  right  course,  there 
fore,  for  the  trespassers  to  pursue  was  to  repent  of  having 
acted  under  the  Patent,  to  restore  it  to  the  King,  to  aban 
don  the  territory,  and  to  return  to  England.  What  con- 

1  Hazard's  Hist.  Coll.,  i.  103-118. 


278  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

sequences  would  have  ensued  on  the  adoption  of  these 
notions  of  Mr.  Williams  we  may  take  note  of  in  a  moment, 
after  a  reference  to  the  course  pursued  as  to  any  rightful 
claims  of  the  savages  that  might  be  found  here.  It  is  to 
be  frankly  admitted  that  none  of  the  European  colonists 
to  America  —  Spanish,  French,  or  English  —  had  any  gen 
erous  allowance  for  the  rights  of  the  aborigines  whom  they 
found  either  residing  upon  or  roaming  over  parts  of  this 
continent,  or  any  delicate  scruples  about  crowding  or  dis 
placing  them.  Their  aimless  and  wasteful  lives,  their 
roaming  over  and  transient  occupancy  of  vast  spaces  of 
fruitful  territory,  —  which  they  skimmed  for  a  subsistence 
without  enriching  by  labor,  —  their  cruel  wars  with  one 
another  in  their  tribes,  and  their  general  state  of  barba 
rism,  were  regarded  as  good  reasons  for  their  giving  place 
to  a  superior  race.  But  the  kings  in  their  patents  by  no 
means  assumed,  nor  did  the  colonists  settling  under  them 
act  on  the  assumption,  that  these  barbarians  had  no  natural 
rights.  It  was  not  long  before  the  English  colonists  came 
to  understand  what  estimate  the  Indians  themselves  had 
of  those  rights  as  implied  in  the  deeds  and  covenants 
which  they  made  with  the  whites.  We  learn  what  it 
was  which  they  considered  as  belonging  to  them,  and  the 
value  which  they  set  upon  it,  when  we  know  what  they 
supposed  they  were  deeding  to  the  whites  for  a  considera 
tion.  In  general,  the  savages  in  these  transactions  appear 
to  have  supposed  that  they  were  granting  to  the  whites  a 
privilege  of  joint  occupancy  of  a  territory  with  themselves, 
for  the  various  uses  of  tillage  and  hunting.  They  had  no 
idea  that  they  themselves  were  to  move  off  at  a  distance 
without  any  reserved  rights.  The  complaint  of  King  Philip 
against  the  people  of  Plymouth  was,  that  by  building  fences, 
dams,  etc.,  the  whites  made  the  land  deeded  to  them  un 
available  for  equal  privileges  to  the  Indians.  Indeed, 
instances  were  not  infrequent  in  which  a  sachem  in  behalf 
of  his  tribe  deeded  the  same  portions  of  territory  to  more 


THE   BANISHMENT   OP   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  279 

than  one  party,  as  if  he  thought  that  they  might  all  put  it 
peacefully  to  the  same  uses  which  had  served  him.  As 
to  the  relations  between  the  Indian  proprietors  and  the 
English  colonists  whom  Williams  charged  with  an  usurpa 
tion  of  their  rights,  the  facts  of  the  case  did  not  at  all 
trouble  the  consciences  of  the  latter.  It  is  true  that  we 
find  them  laying  much  stress  upon  the  opportunity  of 
entering  here  upon  a  vacuum  domicilium,  —  a  large  ter 
ritory  wasted  and  cleared  by  pestilence.  And  their  faith 
was  cheered  by  the  belief  that  Providence  had  so  disposed 
the  matter  for  their  benefit ;  yet  they  by  no  means  were 
indifferent  to  the  rights  of  the  few  scattered  and  humbled 
natives  in  their  neighborhood,  but  sought  in  every  case  to 
satisfy  them.  Before  the  transfer  of  the  government  here, 
the  Governor  of  the  Company,  writing  from  London  to 
Endicott,  their  agent  in  Salem,  instructed  him  thus :  "  If 
any  of  the  salvages  pretend  right  of  inheritance  to  all  or 
any  part  of  the  lands  granted  in  our  pattent,  we  pray  you 
endeavour  to  purchase  their  tityle  that  we  may  avoyde  the 
least  scruple  of  intrusion."  1  The  instruction  was  strictly 
followed. 

Mr.  Williams  was  not  a  man  to  be  deterred  or  appalled 
by  a  view  of  the  consequences  which  would  follow  from 
any  course  of  action  which  his  conscience  set  before  him  as 
right.  But  one  may  doubt  whether  he  had  deliberately 
recognized  the  inevitable  results  which  would  ensue  here  if 
his  views  as  to  the  iniquity  and  worthlessness  of  the  Pa 
tent,  and  the  obligation  to  surrender  it,  recommended  them 
selves  to  the  authorities  for  adoption.  Desolation,  ruin, 
and  anarchy,  with  spoliation  and  free  plunder,  the  prostra 
tion  of  all  proprietary  rights  and  of  all  securities  for  life, 
would  be  the  inevitable  issues  of  the  baffled  efforts  and 
sacrifices  for  planting  a  colony  on  the  edge  of  a  wilder 
ness.  There  were  enemies  and  mischievous  plotters  near 
the  Court  at  home,  and  a  threatened  revocation  of  the 

1  Court  Records,  i.  394. 


280  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Charter.  The  crude  and  speculative  fancies  and  impulses 
of  this  visionary  young  divine  might  insure  for  the  colony 
the  ruin  which  imperilled  it.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  have 
occurred  to  Williams  that  he  was  a  consenting  party  to, 
and  a  profiter  by,  the  wrong  and  outrage  which  he  charged ; 
for  he  himself  owned  a  house  and  ten  acres  of  land  in 
Salem,  which  he  mortgaged  on  leaving  there  for  Rhode 
Island.  By  a  touch  of  humor  rare  in  the  pages  of  Win- 
throp,  it  appears  that  the  Governor  took  note  of  this  fact. 
In  his  letter  to  Endicott  he  writes,  "  But  if  our  title  be  not 
good,  neither  by  patent,  nor  possession  of  these  parts  as 
vacuum  domicilium,  nor  by  good  liking  of  the  natives,  I 
mervayle  by  what  title  Mr.  Williams  himselfe  holds." 

After  the  Court  of  Assistants,  as  above  related,  had  had 
the  conference  with  Williams  about  the  contents  of  his 
"  treatise,"  and  Endicott,  at  the  request  of  Winthrop,  had 
"  dealt  with "  him,  in  confuting  his  errors  and  inducing 
him  "  to  retract  the  same,"  Winthrop  writes  :  - 

"Mr.  Williams  also  wrote  to  the  governour,  and  also  to  him 
and  the  rest  of  the  council,  very  submissively,  professing  his  in 
tent  to  have  been  only  to  have  written  for  the  private  satisfaction 
of  the  governour,  etc.,  of  Plymouth,  without  any  purpose  to  have 
stirred  any  further  in  it,  if  the  governour  here  had  not  required  a 
copy  of  him ;  withal  offering  his  book,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  be 
burnt.  At  the  next  court  he  appeared  penitently,  and  gave  satis 
faction  of  his  intention  and  loyalty.  So  it  was  left,  and  nothing 
done  in  it."  * 

It  is  evident  that  Winthrop  thought  this  a  final  and  amica 
ble  disposal  of  an  alarming  matter. 

We  must  pause  a  moment  here  upon  a  point  raised  by 
more  than  one  of  the  friendly  biographers  of  Williams. 
They  charge  it  as  an  intrusive  and  inquisitorial  proceeding 
on  the  part  of  the  magistrates  in  summoning  Williams  to 
produce  before  them,  as  from  his  private  desk,  an  unpub- 

i  Winthrop,  i.  122. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  281 

lislied  manuscript  which  he  had  penned  for  the  satisfaction 
of  a  few  friends,  and  had  not  intended  to  send  abroad.  In 
the  pages  of  some  writers,  who  in  reviewing  the  conflict 
of  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts  with  Roger  Williams 
have  shown  their  favor  toward  him  by  attempting  to  put 
those  authorities  in  the  wrong,  appear  aspersions  or  charges 
in  substance  as  follows  :  The  assumption  is  taken  that  the 
paper  which  he  had  written  invalidating  the  patent,  with 
its  alarming  notions,  had  never  really  been  made  public  by 
him.  It  was  not  much  more  than  a  speculative,  tentative 
essay  on  the  subject,  written  by  him  for  self-satisfaction, 
and  still  kept  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  repository,  except 
so  far  as  he  had  shown  it  confidentially  to  a  few  friends  in 
the  same  privacy  of  intercourse.  The  implication  there 
fore  has  been  drawn,  that  there  was  something  underhand, 
something  of  artifice  in  the  ingenuity  used  in  rifling  and 
forcing  that  private  paper  into  the  light  and  making  it  the 
subject  of  public  excitement  and  remonstrance.  From  the 
facts  of  the  case  which  have  been  presented,  the  reader 
must  judge  whether  there  are  grounds  for  that  imputation. 
He  must  remind  himself,  however,  that  at  that  time  im 
portant  papers,  whether  expository  or  controversial,  were 
often  copied  —  in  lack  of  the  press  —  and  privately  handed 
from  one  to  another  interested  party.  And  he  must  also 
remind  himself  that  if  Williams  by  confidentially  submit 
ting  his  paper  to  a  few  chosen  men  had  thus  exposed  his 
sense  of  its  inflammatory  character,  the  authorities  on  their 
side  would  have  been  all  the  more  alarmed  by  the  secrecy 
under  which  the  mischief  might  work,  compared  with  the 
effect  of  its  open  and  stout  avowal.  To  them  the  differ 
ence  would  have  been  that  between  the  sinuosity  of  a  snake 
and  the  ferocity  of  the  wolf.  All  that  can  be  said  in  an 
swer  to  this  charge  is  that  Williams  had  furnished  Win- 
throp  at  his  own  request  a  copy  of  the  "  treatise,"  and  that 
the  common  bruit  of  its  tenor  must  have  originated  in  the 
shock  which  it  had  given  to  those  of  Plymouth  who  had 


282  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

seen  it  and  been  greatly  troubled  by  it.  The  fact  that 
Williams  had  thus  guardedly  passed  the  "  treatise "  only 
through  private  hands,  might  be  alleged  as  proving  that  he 
was  himself  aware  of  its  inflammatory  character. 

It  was  plain  that  the  Court  had  not  come  to  a  full  knowl 
edge  of  the  spirit  of  the  man  with  whom  they  had  to  deal, 
when  they  supposed  the  matter  disposed  of.  Williams  was 
a  man  of  that  self-assertive  and  antagonistic  frame  of  spirit, 
that  a  nursing  and  brooding  over  any  unfair  restraint  im 
posed  upon  his  mental  freedom  would  stir  him  to  a  fresh 
assertion  of  it. 

The  Court  of  Assistants  met  again  in  Boston,  Jan.  24, 
1634,  to  consider  Mr.  Williams's  letter  to  them  above 
mentioned  — 

"when,  with  the  advice  of  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Wilson,  and  weigh 
ing  his  letter,  and  further  considering  of  the  aforesaid  offensive 
passages  in  his  book  (which  being  written  in  very  obscure  and 
implicative  phrases,  might  well  admit  of  doubtful  interpretation) 
they  found  the  matters  not  to  be  so  evil  as  at  first  they  seemed. 
Whereupon  they  agreed,  that  upon  his  retractation,  etc.,  or  taking 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  etc.,  it  should  be  passed  over."  1 

We  are  not  informed  whether  or  not  Williams  wrote  any 
further  "  retractation,"  or  took  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

Before  his  case  was  resumed,  two  pleasant  little  incidents 
interpose  themselves  in  our  grave  annals,  which  must  have 
engaged  some  lively  interest.  The  first  was  about  "  a 
question  raised  on  Lecture-day  at  Boston,"  as  to  whether 
it  was  the  duty  of  women  to  veil  themselves  on  going 
abroad.  Cotton  thought  it  was.  Endicott,  backed  by  Wil 
liams,  thought  it  was  not.  The  other  incident,  a  more 
lively  one,  was  the  mutilation  of  the  King's  colors  by  cut 
ting  out  the  cross,  as  "idolatrous."  The  deed  was  done 
by  Endicott,  at  the  supposed  instigation  of  Williams. 

As  a  sign  of  the  watchfulness  of  the  magistrates  against 

1  Winthrop,  i.  123. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OP   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  283 

any  challenge  of  what  they  held  to  be  their  rightful  author 
ity,  mention  should  here  be  made  of  their  grievance  with 
another  of  the  elders.  Mr.  Eliot,  teacher  of  the  Rox- 
bury  church,  had  blamed  the  magistrates  in  a  sermon  for 
concluding  a  peace  with  the  Pequot  Indians  without  con 
sent  of  the  people,  through  their  deputies,  and,  as  Winthrop 
writes,1  — 

"  for  other  failings  (as  he  conceived).  We  took  order  that  he 
should  be  dealt  with  by  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Hooker,  and  Mr.  Welde, 
to  be  brought  to  see  his  errour,  and  to  heal  it  by  some  public  ex 
planation  of  his  meaning :  for  the  people  began  to  take  occasion 
to  murmur  against  us  for  it."  He  was  brought  "  to  acknowledge 
his  errour  —  and  so  promised  to  express  himself  in  public  next 
Lord's  day." 

But  Williams  was  not  so  pliant  in  the  fibres  of  his  con 
science.  Winthrop  writes,  Dec.  7,  1634,2 — 

"  The  Court  was  likewise  informed  that  Mr.  Williams  of  Salem 
had  broken  his  promise  to  us,  hi  teaching  publicly  against  the 
king's  patent,  and  our  great  sin  in  claiming  right  thereby  to  the 
country,  etc.,  and  for  usual  terming  the  churches  of  England  anti- 
christian.  We  granted  summons  to  him  for  his  appearance  at  the 
next  court." 

Our  confidence  in  the  rigid  truthfulness  of  Winthrop 
can  alone  assure  us  as  to  any  breach  of  his  plighted  word 
by  Williams,  for  we  have  no  other  information  as  to  the 
terms  of  his  promise  made  in  February  preceding.  But 
when  the  Court  met  in  March  following,  1635,  there  is  no 
record  referring  to  his  case,  nor  in  the  Governor's  Journal. 
We  learn,  however,  from  another  source3  that  Mr.  Cotton, 
with  the  consent  of  his  fellow-elders  and  brethren  — 

"  presented  a  serious  Request  to  the  Magistrates,  that  they  would 
be  pleased  to  forbeare  all  civill  prosecution  against  him,  till  our- 

1  Winthrop,  i.  151.  2  Ibid. 

3  Cotton's  Reply  to  Mr.  Williams  his  Examination,  p.  38. 


284  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

selves  (with  our  Churches)  had  dealt  with  him  in  a  Church  way, 
to  convince  him  of  sinne :  alledging  that  my  selfe  and  brethren 
hoped  his  violent  course  did  rather  spring  from  scruple  of  con 
science  (though  carried  with  an  inordinate  zeale)  than  from  a  sedi 
tious  principle." 

An  earnest  effort  was  made  by  the  elders,  with  the  ap 
proval  of  the  magistrates,  in  this  pacificatory  direction,  but 
not  with  the  desired  result. 

A  new  difficulty  now  arose  from  the  teaching  of  Mr. 
Williams,  which  caused  the  Court  of  Assistants  to  summon 
him  May  10, 1635.  The  freeman's  oath  was  effective  for 
securing  the  allegiance  only  of  that  portion  of  the  male 
inhabitants  of  the  jurisdiction  who  enjoyed  the  civil  fran 
chise.  What  authority  or  restraint  could  the  Court  exer 
cise  over  those  not  enfranchised?  It  appears  that  the 
Court  was  at  this  time  alarmed  by  the  influx  of  some 
restless  strangers  from  other  parts  of  the  continent  and 
islands.  It  provided  a  "  resident's  oath "  to  secure  the 
obedience  to  the  laws,  and  the  loyalty  and  peaceful  con 
duct  of  all  above  .the  age  of  twenty  years  who  intended  to 
reside  here  for  six  months  or  more,  and  to  pledge  them  to 
reveal  any  mischievous  plottings.  All  who  should  refuse 
after  being  twice  called  upon  to  take  this  oath  were  to  be 
banished.  A  slight  change  was  made  in  the  wording  of 
the  freeman's  oath.  But  Mr.  Williams  had  "  scruples  " 
which  impelled  him  publicly  to  preach  and  to  protest 
against  the  resident's  oath.  "  Swearing "  was  in  his 
view  an  act  of  worship.  A  magistrate,  he  maintained, 
might  not  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate  person,  for 
this  was  to  "  have  communion  with  a  wicked  man  in  the 
worship  of  God,  and  cause  him  to  take  the  name  of  God 
in  vain."  This  was  the  occasion  of  a  fresh  and  intense 
excitement.  It  appears  that  the  exaction  of  the  resident's 
oath  was  not  rigidly  pressed.  May  30,  1635,  the  Governor 
(then  Dudley,  who  the  next  month  gave  place  to  Haynes) 
and  Assistants  sent  for  Mr.  Williams  and  charged  him  with 


THE   BANISHMENT   OP   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  285 

errors  in  his  public  preaching.  Winthrop  says  :  "  He  was 
heard  before  all  the  ministers,  and  very  clearly  confuted. 
Mr.  Endicott  was  at  first  of  the  same  opinion,  but  he  gave 
place  to  the  truth."  l  Williams,  however,  did  not  regard 
himself  as  confuted.  He  was  then  strong  in  the  affec 
tions  and  confidence  of  the  church  at  Salem,  which  had 
invited  him  to  office  in  it  while  he  was  under  the  censure 
of  the  Court,  and  while  it  was  being  dealt  with  by  the 
elders.  There  was  a  great  "  apprehension  of  his  godli 
ness,"  and  women  were  warmly  on  his  side.  Summoned 
and  appearing  before  the  General  Court  May  10,  1635, 
we  read  in  Winthrop :  — 

"  It  was  laid  to  his  charge  that,  being  under  question  before 
the  magistracy  and  churches  for  divers  dangerous  opinions,  viz., 

1.  that  the  magistrate  ought  not  to  punish  the  breach  of  the  first 
table,  otherwise  than  in  such  cases  as  did  disturb  the  civil  peace ; 

2.  that  he  ought  not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate  man; 

3.  that  a  man  ought  not  to  pray  with  such,  though  wife,  child, 
etc. ;    4.  that  a  man   ought  not  to  give   thanks  after  the  sacra 
ment  nor   after   meat,  etc. ;    and   that   the   other   churches  were 
about  to  write  to  the  church  of  Salem  to  admonish  him  of  these 
errours,  notwithstanding  the  church  had  since  called  him  to  the 
office  of  a  teacher.     Much  debate  was  about  these  things.     The 
said  opinions  were    adjudged   by   all,   magistrates    and   ministers 
(who   were   desired   to   be  present),   to   be   erroneous   arid  very 
dangerous,    and   the    calling    of   him    to  office  at  that  time  was 
judged  a  great  contempt  of  authority.     So,  in  fine,  time  was  given 
to  kim  and  the  church  of  Salem  to  consider  of  these  things  till 
the  next  general  court,  and  then  either  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
court,  or  else   to  expect  the  sentence ;   it  being  professedly  de 
clared  by  the  ministers  (at  the  request  of  the  court  to  give  their 
advice)   that  he  who  should  obstinately  maintain  such  opinions 
(whereby  a  church  might  run  into  heresy,  apostasy,  or  tyranny, 
and  yet  the  civil  magistrate  could  not  intermeddle)  were  to  be 
removed,  and  that  the  other  churches  ought  to  request  the  magis 
trates  so  to  do."  2 

1  Winthrop,  i.  158.  2  Ibid.,  i.  162. 


286  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

The  reader  of  our  time  will  not  fail  to  note  the  perplexi 
ties  and  encroachments  into  which  the  fathers  were  led  by 
their  tentative  and  experimental  practical  efforts  in  theo 
cratic  government.  Here  were  elders  consulted  indeed, 
but  in  effect  deciding  the  action  of  a  civil  court;  magis 
trates  intermeddling  with  church  affairs ;  and  besides  this, 
other  churches,  each  of  them  asserting  its  own  indepen 
dency, —  for  as  yet  no  common  platform  for  union,  council, 
or  discipline  had  been  recognized,  —  intruding  their  advice 
and  threatenings  upon  a  sister  fellowship. 

But  something  more  questionable  and  more  mischievous 
was  yet  to  follow  at  the  same  Court.  We  read  it  in  Win- 
throp,  as  follows  :  — 

"  Salem  men  had  preferred  a  petition  at  the  last  general  court 
for  some  land  in  Marblehead  Neck,  which  they  did  challenge  as 
belonging  to  their  town ;  but  because  they  had  chosen  Mr.  Wil 
liams  their  teacher,  while  he  stood  under  question  of  authority, 
and  so  offered  contempt  to  the  magistrates,  etc.,1  their  petition 
was  refused  till,  etc.1  Upon  this  the  church  of  Salem  write  to 
other  churches  to  admonish  the  magistrates  of  this  as  a  heinous 
sin,  and  likewise  the  deputies ;  for  which  at  the  next  general 
court  their  deputies  were  not  received  until  they  should  give 
satisfaction  about  the  letter."  2 

Here  were  indeed  new  elements  of  confusion  and  acri 
mony  stirred  into  a  strife  already  sufficiently  alienating 
and  threatening.  In  its  own  view  this  action  of  the  Court 
was  in  part  retaliatory,  and  in  part  an  exaction  from  the 
Salem  people  of  a  quid  pro  quo,  as  the  Court,  having  be 
stowed  the  civil  franchise  upon  the  church  members  who 
sent  to  it  their  deputies,  felt  justified  in  exacting  from  them 
an  equivalent  respect.  But  neither  our  sympathy  nor  our 
approval  can  go  with  the  Court  in  this  proceeding,  which 

1  These  "  etc.,  etc.,"  indicate  a  method  of  Winthrop  in  an  incomplete  sen 
tence. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  164. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  287 

has  a  look  of  spite  and  vengefulness,  and  which  prepared 
for  it  further  trouble.  Up  to  this  point,  for  anything 
which  appears  to  the  contrary,  all  the  variances  which 
Williams  had  created  might  have  been  in  part  harmonized, 
and  for  the  rest  tolerated  or  condoned  as  eccentricities  in 
a  thoroughly  sincere  and  well-reputed  man.  But  not  so 
after  this  action  of  the  Court.  It  is  clear  upon  the  record 
that  this  action  justly  excited  and  exasperated  Williams, 
if  it  did  not  also  embitter  him,  driving  him  into  rash  or 
ill-considered  measures  for  putting  himself  in  the  right 
by  putting  others  in  the  wrong.  The  Court  attempted  to 
punish  the  town  of  Salem  for  an  act  of  such  of  its  inhabi 
tants  as  belonged  to  the  church  of  Salem.  If  the  town 
had  a  rightful  claim  on  the  piece  of  territory  for  which 
it  petitioned,  the  affair  should  have  been  left,  conciliatorily 
to  a  decision  on  its  own  merits,  not  mixed  with  an  entirely 
independent  issue.  Resenting  the  doings  of  the  Court  in 
deferring  action  upon  the  Salem  petition,  Williams,  with 
the  approval  of  his  church,  and  in  its  name,  proceeded 
to  address  very  sharp  and  stinging  "letters  of  Admoni 
tion"  to  all  the  churches  of  the  Bay  to  which  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Court  belonged,  and  enjoined  that  they  be  dealt 
with  for  an  act  of  "injustice,"  and  for  "heinous  sin." 
These  epistles  we  shall  find  described  in  the  sentence  of 
the  Court  soon  to  be  passed  upon  Williams,  as  "letters  of 
defamation."  Here  was  material  for  the  most  intense 
excitement  and  strife,  with  agitation  and  threatened  debate 
in  the  separate  and  the  united  elements  of  Church  and 
State  throughout  the  whole  jurisdiction.  It  subjected 
the  theocracy  to  a  most  severe  strain.  Only  reflection, 
with  the  help  of  imagination,  if  we  care  to  exercise  them 
on  so  unattractive  a  subject,  can  bring  before  us  the 
consternation  and  the  minglings  of  the  passions  of  zeal 
and  resentment  with  which  in  the  circles  alike  of  the 
"  godly "  and  the  "  profane,"  these  proceedings  were  ac 
companied. 


288  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

The  busy  occupations,  distractions,  and  amusements  of 
life,  with  the  newspapers  and  the  world-wide  intelligence 
which  fills  them,  however  unwholesome  may  be  some  of 
their  influences  upon  us,  afford  security  against,  or  relief 
from,  those  morbid  and  teasing  exercises  of  conference  and 
discipline  which  trespassed  upon  the  active  duties  and  tor 
mented  the  leisure  hours  of  this  Puritan  community.  The 
English  population  in  the  Bay  may  then  have  been  about 
five  thousand,  of  which  one  tenth  were  freemen  and  church 
members.  There  were  twelve  organized  and  a  few  incipi 
ent  churches,  and  about  a  score  of  ministers.  Probably 
the  threatened  conflagration  was  dealt  with  as  judiciously 
as  the  case  admitted.  Instead  of  engaging  the  direct  ac 
tion  of  each  of  the  churches  challenged  in  Williams's  letters 
of  admonition,  some  of  the  elders  individually  and  jointly 
took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  addressed  themselves,  by  re 
monstrance,  intercession,  or  appeal,  to  members  of  the 
Salem  church.  They  succeeded  in  drawing  away  a  ma 
jority  of  them  from  any  further  countenance  of  their  teacher 
in  the  course  he  had  adopted,  though  some  of  them  re 
mained  steadfast  to  him.  If  Williams  had  been  prompted 
by  the  sturdiness  of  his  conscience,  and  not  by  temper,  in 
his  comprehensive  exercise  of  a  method  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  one  can  hardly  wonder  that  the  falling  away 
from  him  of  a  majority  of  his  church  should  have  infused 
into  his  subsequent  course  toward  them  something  that 
seems  to  have  been  anger  and  alienation.  There  had  been 
an  intermission  in  the  session  of  the  Court  while  the  elders 
had  been  privately  doing  the  work  just  referred  to.  A 
terrific  gale  and  tempest  had  been  raging  in  the  Bay  on 
the  25th  of  August,  and  the  day  following  the  devastation 
was  Sunday.  It  was  said  that  Williams  was  ill.  He 
had  officiated  in  his  place  for  the  last  time ;  for,  instead 
of  appearing  for  the  service,  he  sent  to  his  church  a  letter 
to  be  read  by  his  ruling  elder,  Sharpe.  Winthrop  thus 
refers  to  it :  — 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  289 

"  Mr.  Williams,  pastor  of  Salem,  being  sick  and  not  able  to 
speak,  wrote  to  his  church  a  protestation,  that  he  could  not  com 
municate  with  the  churches  in  the  bay,  neither  would  he  commu 
nicate  with  them,  except  they  would  refuse  communion  with  the 
rest ;  but  the  whole  church  was  grieved  herewith."  1 

The  letter  itself  is  not  extant,  and  we  know  its  spirit 
and  tenor  only  fragmentarily,  leading  us  to  infer  that  it 
was  scorching  in  its  severity.  He  was  thus  left  what  in 
modern  phrase  is  called  a  "  come-outer ; "  and  as  the  ma 
jority  of  his  church  expressed  penitence  for  their  course 
to  the  other  churches,  they  may  be  held  to  have  repudiated 
him.  For  two  weeks  —  on  Sundays  and  week  days  —  he 
held  meetings  at  his  own  house,  with  a  group  of  ardent 
followers.  In  these  meetings  he  insisted  upon  his  renun 
ciation  of  communion  with  his  own  or  any  other  church, 
and  extended  his  individualism  even  to  a  refusal  to  pray 
with  his  wife,  or  join  in  grace  with  her  at  the  table,  because 
she  still  attended  the  public  assembly. 

The  General  Court  met  at  Cambridge  in  September, 
1635 ;  and  now  we  find  upon  its  records  the  first  and  the 
only  reference  to  these  doings  of  the  man  whose  course  for 
more  than  four  years  had  caused  so  many  vexations.  It  is 
in  these  words  :  — 

"  Whereas,  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  church 
of  Salem,  hath  broached  and  divulged  dyvers  newe  and  dangerous 
opinions  against  the  auchthoritie  of  magistrates,  as  also  writ  let 
ters  of  defamacion,  both  of  the  magistrates  and  churches  here,  and 
that  before  any  conviction,  and  yet  mainetaineth  the  same  with 
out  retracion,  it  is  therefore  ordered,  that  the  said  Mr.  Williams 
shall  departe  out  of  this  jurisdiction  within  sixe  weekes  nowe  next 
ensueing,  which  if  hee  neglect  to  performe,  it  shalbe  lawfull  for 
the  Governor  and  two  of  the  magistrates  to  send  him  to  some 
place  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  not  to  returne  any  more  without 
licence  from  the  Court."  2 

1  Winthrop,  i.  166.  2  Records,  i.  160,  161. 

19 


290  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

He  was  thus  free  in  his  choice  of  any  other  place  of 
habitation.  He  might  go  to  Plymouth,  to  the  Piscataqua, 
or  elsewhere  on  this  continent,  or  return  to  England ; 
though  a  frank  avowal  of  his  opinions  there  might  have 
brought  upon  him  harder  measure  than  he  received  here. 

At  this  same  Court,  Endicott,  who  had  been  under  sus 
pension  of  office  for  mutilating  the  King's  colors,  after 
making  a  stout  show  of  opposition,  was  ordered  to  com 
mittal,  but  "  upon  his  submission  and  full  acknowledge 
ment  of  his  offence  he  was  dismissed."  The  Court  seems 
to  have  resolved  to  act  decidedly  in  the  whole  matter  be 
fore  it,  for  it  — 

"  ordered  that  if  the  major  parte  of  the  freemen  of  Salem  shall 
disclame  the  letters  sent  lately  from  the  church  of  Salem  to  sev- 
erall  churches,  it  shall  then  be  lawfull  for  them  to  send  deputyes 
to  the  Generall  Court."  J 

They  did  so.  Neither  in  the  interval  of  eight  weeks  be 
tween  the  courts  in  which  Williams  had  been  summoned, 
and  the  meeting  of  that  in  which  he  was  sentenced,  nor  in 
the  five  weeks  following,  did  Mr.  Williams  at  all  meet  the 
expectations  of  the  authorities  by  silence  or  caution  in  his 
speech.  We  learn  from  Winthrop  that  at  the  Court  what 
seemed  like  gentle  and  patient  efforts  of  appeal  and  remon 
strance  were  made  with  Williams.  His  two  letters  —  the 
one  "  to  the  churches  complaining  of  the  magistrates 
for  injustice,  extreme  oppression,"  etc.,  and  the  other 
to  his  own  church  to  persuade  them  to  renounce  com 
munion  with  all  the  churches  in  the  Bay,  "  as  full  of  anti- 
christian  pollution,"  etc. — were  brought  before  him.  "He 
justified  both  these  letters,  and  maintained  all  his  opin 
ions."  On  being  offered  a  month's  delay  for  further  con 
ference  or  disputation,  he  preferred  present  decision.  Mr. 
Hooker,  who  was  appointed  to  dispute  with  him,  "  could 

1  Kecords,  i.  158. 


THE  BANISHMENT   OP  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  291 

not  reduce  him  from  any  of»  his  errours."  So  he  was  sen 
tenced  on  the  next  day.1  Williams  afterward  wrote  of  his 
resolve  at  this  time,2  that  he  was  ready  for  his  opinions 
"  not  only  to  be  bound  and  banished,  but  to  die  also  in 
New  England,  as  for  most  holy  truths  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus."  The  date  limiting  Mr.  Williams's  departure  ex 
pired  on  the  end  of  November ;  but  as  he  was  reported  to 
be  ill,  and  on  consideration  of  the  season,  he  was  informed 
that  he  might  delay  till  the  spring,  on  condition  that  he 
should  not  "  go  about  to  draw  others  to  his  opinions." 
Again  we  turn  to  Winthrop,  who  writes  that  in  January, 
1636- 

"  The  governor  and  assistants  met  at  Boston  to  consider  about 
Mr.  Williams,  for  that  they  were  credibly  informed  that,  notwith 
standing  the  injunction  laid  upon  him  (upon  the  liberty  granted 
him  to  stay  till  the  spring)  not  to  go  about  to  draw  others  to  his 
opinions,  he  did  use  to  entertain  company  in  his  house,  and  to 
preach  to  them,  even  of  such  points  as  he  had  been  censured  for ; 
and  it  was  agreed  to  send  him  into  England  by  a  ship  then  ready 
to  depart.  The  reason  was,  because  he  had  drawn  above  twenty 
persons  to  his  opinion,  and  they  were  intended  to  erect  a  planta 
tion  about  the  Narragansett  Bay,  from  whence  the  infection  would 
easily  spread  into  these  churches  (the  people  being,  many  of  them, 
much  taken  with  the  apprehension  of  his  godliness).  Whereupon 
a  warrant  was  sent  to  him  to  come  presently  to  Boston,  to  be 
shipped,  etc.  He  returned  answer  (and  divers  of  Salem  came 
with  it)  that  he  could  not  come  without  hazard  of  his  life,  etc. 
Whereupon  a  pinnace  was  sent  with  commission  to  Capt.  Under 
bill,  etc.,  to  apprehend  him  and  carry  him  aboard  the  ship  (which 
then  rode  at  Natascutt  [Nantasket])  ;  but  when  they  came  at  his 
house,  they  found  he  had  been  gone  three  days  before ;  but 
whither,  they  could  not  learn."  3 

We  must  infer  that  there  was  some  interval  of  time 
between  Williams's  sending  word  of  his  illness  and  the 

1  Records,  i.  171. 

2  Mr.  Cotton's  Letter  Examined,  etc.,  p.  5. 
8  Winthrop,  i.  175,  176. 


292  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

date  of  his  departure.  It  is  one  of  the  quaint  and  charm 
ing  illustrations  of  the  kindly  personal  relations  which 
existed  between  Winthrop  and  Williams,  who  appear  here 
before  us  as  magistrate  and  offender,  that  they  must  have 
had  private  friendly  converse  together  as  to  what  the  ban 
ished  man  might  most  wisely  do  for  the  future.  Williams 
wrote  of  this  time,  from  Providence,  to  Major  Mason,  in 
1670 :  - 

"  That  ever  honored  Governour,  Mr.  Winthrop,  privately  wrote 
to  ine  to  steer  my  course  to  the  Nahigonset  Bay,  and  Indians,  for 
many  high  and  heavenly  and  publicke  ends,  incouraging  me  from 
the  freeness  of  the  place  from  any  English  claims  or  pattents."  : 

Reminiscences  of  our  childhood's  sympathy  with  "  the 
Babes  in  the  Wood  "  come  up  to  us  as  we  read  the  pa 
thetic  touches  with  which  Williams  refers  to  his  wilderness 
experiences  before  his  final  comfortable  rest  at  Providence. 
In  the  letter  just  quoted  he  writes  Major  Mason,  "  I  was 
sorely  tossed  for  one  fourteen  weekes,  not  knowing  what 
bread  or  bed  did  meane."  In  his  letter  to  Cotton  he  says 
he  was  "  exposed  to  winter  miseries  in  a  howling  wilder 
ness."  Again,  he  speaks  of  "  the  miserie  of  a  Winter's 
Banishment  amongst  the  Barbarians."  Perhaps  a  recent 
writer,  sympathizing  with  the  exile  in  other  of  his  expe 
riences,  is  too  keen  on  this  point  when  he  speaks  of  Wil 
liams  on  his  course  as  "  enduring  hardships  by  the  way 
with  which  we  might  perhaps  sympathise  more  if  we  heard 
less  of  them  from  the  sufferer  himself."  2  Williams  left 
Salem  about  the  middle  of  January,  with  at  least  four 
companions ;  and  there  are  intimations  that  some  of  his 
friends  had  preceded  him  to  make  preparations  for  him. 
They  received  the  hospitalities  of  the  natives  at  Sowam's 
(now  Warren),  Rhode  Island,  under  the  protection  of  Mas- 
sasoit.  Their  experiences,  probably,  were  not  much  unlike 

1  1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.  276. 

2  The  English  in  America  (The  Puritan  Colonies),  by  J.  A.  Doyle,  i.  166. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  293 

those  of  very  many  wayfarers  then  in  these  regions.  The 
excitement  at  Salem  continued  after  Mr.  Williams's  de 
parture.  Three  men  and  eight  women  stood  tenaciously 
for  his  opinions.  Winthrop  tells  us  that  the  Salem  church 
sought  advice  of  some  of  the  other  churches  whether  these 
dissentients  should  be  encouraged  to  form  a  church  by 
themselves.  But  this  was  disapproved.1 

It  is  not  to  our  purpose  to  follow  the  career  of  this 
firmly  independent  man  in  his  experiences  outside  of 
Massachusetts.  Being  kindly  reminded  that  at  Sowam's 
he  was  within  the  then  limits  of  Plymouth  patent,  he 
moved  to  the  fair  region  on  a  finer  bay,  and  received  a 
present  of  land  from  a  friendly  sachem.  There  gathered 
around  him,  soon  and  afterward,  a  strange  company 
representing  "  all  sorts  of  consciences,"  men  and  women 
of  strongly  marked  individualities  and  eccentricities  em 
phasized  and  pertinaciously  asserted.  Lechford,  in  1642, 
describes  them  as  "  a  company  of  divers  opinions ;  most 
are  Anabaptists ;  they  hold  there  is  no  visible  church  in 
the  Bay,  nor  any  true  Ministerie."  2  The  Scotch  Presby 
terian  Bailey  writes :  "  Sundry  of  the  Independents  are 
stepped  out  of  the  church,  and  follow  my  good  acquaint 
ance  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  who  says  there  is  no  church,  no 
sacraments,  no  pastors,  no  church  officers  or  ordinances  in 
the  world,  nor  has  been  since  a  few  years  after  the  Apos 
tles.  "  3  True  to  covenanted  obligations,  Williams's  deserted 
Salem  church  brought  its  admonitions  and  discipline  to 
bear  upon  him  by  letters  and  committees  in  his  exile,  and 
finding  him  incorrigible,  passed  upon  him,  through  his  suc 
cessor  in  office,  the  famous  Hugh  Peter,  a  sentence  of 
excommunication. 

Williams  in  his  responsibilities  in  civil  affairs  with  his 
new  fellow-citizens  was  loyal  to  his  principles  of  untram 
melled  freedom  in  "  soul  matters."  He  was,  however,  in 

1  Winthrop,  i.  186.  2  Plain  Dealing,  p.  42. 

3  Letters  and  Journals,  ii.  43. 


294  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

continual  broils  and  vexations  with  the  independent  minds 
and  eccentric  opinions  and  fancies  of  the  strange  variety 
among  those  more  or  less  intimately  associated  with  him 
in  matters  of  fellowship,  religion,  or  administration.  Dr. 
Palfrey,  in  closing  his  judicial  review  of  Williams's  char 
acter  and  career,  puts  much  of  wisdom  in  the  following 
sentence  :  "  Roger  Williams  was  not  the  first  man,  nor  the 
last,  to  discover  that  it  is  one  thing  to  conduct  an  opposi 
tion,  and  another  thing  to  carry^  on  a  government."  1 

There  has  been  much  controversial  discussion  and  com 
ment,  not  wholly  free  of  asperity  of  judgment,  of  the 
rightfulness,  wisdom,  and  humanity  of  the  dealing  of  the 
Massachusetts  authorities  with  Roger  Williams.  No  judi 
cial  review  or  opinion  concerning  it  is  called  for,  or  would 
be  in 'place  here,  as  the  single  aim  of  the  writer  is  to  pre 
sent  each  of  the  leading  incidents  in  early  Massachusetts 
as  exhibiting  the  fruits  and  workings  of  the  theocratic  the 
ory  of  government.  For  this  purpose  the  reader  asks,  not 
for  a  plea,  nor  an  arbitration,  but  the  facts,  as  they  have  in 
this  case  been  laid  before  him.  It  appears  that  the  authori 
ties,  after  the  lapse  of  eight  years  had  calmed  the  more 
excited  passions  of  the  quarrel,  saw  no  reason  to  regret  or 
blame,  or  reverse  their  action  in  the  case.  Mr.  Williams 
made  a  voyage  to  England  in  1643,  where  he  obtained  from 
the  Commissioners  of  Plantations  what  is  called  the  First 
Charter  of  Rhode  Island.  This  did  not  convey  a  grant  of 
land,  but  only  powers  for  governing  settlers  according  to 
the  laws  of  England.  On  his  outward'  passage,  not  having 
liberty  to  come  to  Boston,  he  embarked  at  New  York.  On 
his  return  he  came  to  Boston  provided  with  a  letter  from 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland  and  others,  seeking  for  him 
a  passage  through  this  jurisdiction.  Of  this,  an  early  histo 
rian  writes :  — 

"  Upon  the  receipt  of  the  said  letter  the  Governour  and  magis 
trates  of  the  Massachusetts  found,  upon  examination  of  their 

1  History  of  New  England,  i.  423. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OP   ROGER   WILLIAMS.  295 

hearts,  they  saw  no  reason  to  condemn  themselves  for  any  former 
proceedings  against  Mr.  Williams ;  but  for  any  offices  of  Chris 
tian  love,  and  duties  of  humanity,  they  were  very  willing  to  main 
tain  a  mutual  correspondency  with  him.  But  as  to  his  danger 
ous  principles  of  Separation,  unless  he  can  be  brought  to  lay  them 
down,  they  see  no  reason  why  to  concede  to  him,  or  any  so  per 
suaded,  free  liberty  of  ingress  and  egress,  lest  any  of  their  people 
should  be  drawn  away  with  his  erroneous  opinions."  x 

It  is  pertinent  to  mention  distinctly  here  two  facts  setting 
forth  how  Mr.  Williams,  in  the  exigencies  and  perplexities 
encountered  in  his  new  home  with  his  unmanageable  or 
intractable  associates,  was  induced  to  commit  himself  to 
proceedings  very  strangely  like  to  those  his  protesting 
against  which  had  caused  him  and  others  such  trouble  in 
Massachusetts.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
fact  that  in  1663,  after  the  restoration  of  the  Monarchy, 
Williams,  with  others,  was  a  petitioner  for,  accepted,  and 
held  many  offices  under,  a  charter  procured  from  Charles 
II.,  the  terms  of  which,  in  its  grant  of  land  and  powers 
of  government,  were  substantially  the  same  as  those  which 
he  thought  it  so  wicked  in  the  Governor  and  Company  of 
the  Massachusetts  to  accept  from  a  former  English  mon 
arch.  The  other  fact  leads  us  to  recall  Mr.  Williams's 
course  in  reference  to  -the  freeman's  oath,  to  be  taken  by 
those  who  had  the  franchise,  and  the  resident's  oath,  re 
quired  of  inhabitants  not  freemen.  Within  two  years 
after  his  exile  his  restless  companions  at  Providence, 
having  as  yet  no  patent,  led  Williams  to  realize  the  neces 
sity  that  they  should  "be  compact  in  a  civill  way  and 
power."  He  wrote  to  Winthrop  asking  advice  on  a  scheme 
which  he  suggested  of  providing  "  a  double  subscription,"  - 
otherwise,  two  forms  of  obligation.  The  one  was  to  bind 
all  householders,  and  others  who  should  become  such,  in 
active  and  passive  obedience  to  the  orders  and  agreements 
made  by  the  majority.  The  other  subscription  was  to  bind 

1  Hubbard's  History  of  New  England,  p.  349. 


296  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

young  men  and  others,  not  householders,  to  a  like  obedi 
ence.1  With  the  omission  of  the  oath  in  each  case,  these 
subscriptions  correspond  to  the  two  Massachusetts  cove 
nants.  In  the  draft  of  the  obligations  as  proposed  by  Mr. 
Williams,  the  restriction  to  "  only  in  civill  things  "  does 
not  appear.  It  is  introduced  afterward.  Historians  of 
Massachusetts  and  historians  of  Rhode  Island  will  prob 
ably  for  all  time  to  come,  as  heretofore,  have  two  ways  of 
telling  the  life  story  in  the  former  State  of  the  founder  of 
the  latter;  but  they  will  alike  honor  and  love  the  man. 

Roger  Williams,  as  the  agent  of  the  towns  of  Providence 
and  Warwick  for  obtaining  a  charter,  went  to  England  in 
1651.  Wishing  to  embark  from  Boston,  he  addressed  "  a 
Humble  Petition  "  to  the  General  Court  for  liberty  to  come 
into  the  jurisdiction  for  that  purpose.  He  refers  to  his 
banishment,  and  "  the  consequences  (bitter  Afflictions  and 
miseries,  Losses,  Sorrowes,  and  Hardships)."  Yet  all 
through  his  "  Exile  "  he  had  been  "  a  professed  and  known 
servant"  to  this  and  all  the  Colonies,  uin  peace  and  war," 
averting  troubles  and  mediating  with  the  Indians.  He 
owns  that  he  is  to  go  as  a  public  agent  to  the  High  Court 
of  the  Parliament  of  England.  He  asks  for  civility  and 
courtesy  from  the  authorities,  and  promises  to  conduct 
inoffensively.  He  is  ready,  however,  —  as  he  always  was, — 
to  pause  on  his  way  and  hold  a  debate  with  any  two  or 
three  of  the  Court  deputed  for  the  purpose.  His  petition 
was  granted,  "  provided  he  carry  himself  inoffencively, 
according  to  his  promise."  2 

The  wording  of  this  petition  and  of  the  answer  to  it, 
fifteen  years  after  the  disputations  and  the  sentence  of 
banishment  in  the  case  of  Williams,  show  us  that  while 
time  enough  had  passed  for  the  cooling  of  the  passions 
of  the  hour,  the  opportunity  for  matured  reflections  had 
left  both  parties  in  the  same  mood  of  mind  concerning 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vi.  186. 

2  Ibid.,  iv.  471. 


THE   BANISHMENT   OF  ROGER   WILLIAMS.  297 

the  original  elements  of  the  strife.  This  might  serve  as 
assurance  to  us  that  neither  of  the  parties  suffered  from 
reproach  of  conscience. 

How  the  people  of  Rhode  Island  rejoiced  in  their  immu 
nities  may  be  inferred  from  the  nervously  worded  terms  in 
which  they  expressed  themselves  in  a  letter  to  their  noble 
and  steadfast  friend  Sir  Henry  Vane,  in  1654.  "  We  have 
not  felt  the  iron  yoke  of  wolvish  bishops,  or  the  new  chains 
of  the  Presbyterian  tyrants,  nor  in  this  colony  have  we 
been  consumed  by  the  over-zealous  fire  of  the  (so-called) 
godly  Christian  magistrates." 

John  Quincy  Adams,  in  his  admirable  Address  on  the 
commemoration  of  the  second  century  after  the  formation 
of  the  New  England  Confederacy,  pronounced  Roger  Wil 
liams  a  "  conscientiously  contentious  man."  As  I  heard 
the  grand  ex-President  speak  those  words,  I  remember 
being  impressed  by  their  peculiar  felicity.  More  than 
that ;  as  the  speaker,  then  hardly  mellowed,  though  in  old 
age,  had  had  full  opportunity  of  knowing  what  his  own 
temper  had  been  in  public  life,  I  thought  there  was  a  rich 
candor  in  the  description,  as  it  applied  as  well  to  himself 
as  to  Williams.  Far  less  fitting  was  Cotton  Mather's 
description  of  Williams  as  "  having  a  windmill  in  his 
head."  A  windmill  must  be  adjusted  by  breezes  and 
points  of  the  compass,  as  Williams  never  was.  He  never 
turned  on  axis  or  spindle,  though  he  created  a  stiff  breeze 
when  it  was  not  furnished  for  his  use.  Within,  he  was 
tempered  for  the  south  wind.  The  air  in  which  he  most 
thrived  was  not  from  the  sour  east,  but  from  the  whole 
some  and  bracing  northwest. 

In  closing  this  episode  in  the  theocratical  history  of 
Massachusetts,  it  is  grateful  to  recur  to  the  generous  and 
lovable  qualities,  the  friendliness  and  magnanimity  of 
spirit  of  this  signal  sufferer,  alike  for  his  own  conscience' 
sake,  and  from  the  workings  of  other  people's  consciences. 
Opinionative,  obstinate,  mischievous,  and  truculent  as  he 


298  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

showed  himself  to  the  authorities,  he  never  indulged  in  his 
actions  a  single  prompting  of  spite  or  malice.  The  tone  of 
his  correspondence,  especially  with  the  Winthrops,  father  and 
son,  is  respectful,  courteous,  and  tenderly  affectionate.  We 
have  farther  on  to  note  how  the  Quakers  vexed  his  spirit 
and  set  him  alike  with  tongue  and  pen  upon  a  fair  match 
in  the  free  use  of  the  epithetical  adjectives  and  the  hard 
names  richly  furnished  in  the  English  language.  But  in 
his  personal  argumentative  and  Scriptural  trials  of  skill, 
logic,  and  rhetoric  with  others,  we  meet  with  no  acid  or 
bitter  utterances.  Even  in  his  elaborate  and  most  vigor 
ous  controversy  with  Cotton  he  seems  sometimes  to  bring 
his  antagonist  into  the  mood  of  "  lovers'  quarrels,"  and  to 
alternate  between  pats  and  spats.  Noblest  of  all  was  he  in 
his  friehdly  services  for  Massachusetts  in  the  quarrels  and 
wars  with  the  natives,  as  arbiter  and  peacemaker  when  this 
was  possible,  or  otherwise  as  watchful  to  ferret  out  strata 
gems  and  treacheries,  and  to  give  wise  warning  to  the 
people  of  the  Bay. 

In  the  year  1875  a  petition  bearing  several  names  — 
which  perhaps  the  bearers  might  not  wish  to  be  here  cop 
ied  —  was  presented  to,  and  advocated  before,  the  Legis 
lature  of  Massachusetts,  by  a  member  of  it,  asking  the 
revocation  of  "  the  sentence  of  banishment  against  Roger 
Williams,"  passed  by  the  General  Court  in  1635.  In  this 
petition  the  cause  of  his  sentence  was  said  to  be  his  cham 
pionship  of  "  perfect  religious  liberty."  The  reader  of  the 
preceding  pages  must  decide  for  himself  how  truly  that 
one  definite  and  concentrated  statement  applies  to  all 
the  subjects  in  controversy  with  Williams.  Winthrop 
would  have  laid  more  stress  upon  the  seditious  tendency 
of  Williams's  utterances  than  even  upon  his  schismatic 
opinions.  The  critical  aggravation  of  his  offences,  which 
inflamed  the  whole  community,  was  in  writing  in  many 
directions  his  "  letters  of  defamation  "  of  the  churches  and 
their  members.  But  however  this  may  have  been,  the  peti- 


THE  BANISHMENT  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS.  299 

tioners  before  the  Legislature,  and  the  member  just  referred 
to  might,  if  better  informed,  have  read  in  the  State  House, 
both  in  the  original  manuscript  and  in  print,  published  by 
the  Legislature,  that  their  wish  had  been  anticipated. 

The  words  which  are  the  most  agreeable  for  a  historian  in 
these  days  to  copy  as  a  close  for  this  subject,  are  the  words 
of  an  Act  passed  by  the  Council  of  Massachusetts  March 
81,1676:  — 

"  Whereas  Mr.  Roger  Williams  stands  at  present  under  a  sen 
tence  of  Restraint  from  coming  into  this  Colony,  yet  considering 
how  readyly  and  freely  at  all  tymes  he  hath  served  the  English 
Interest  in  this  tyme  of  warre  with  the  Indians  and  manifested 
his  particular  respects  to  the  Authority  of  this  colony  in  several 
services  desired  of  him,  and  further,  understanding  how  by  the 
last  assault  of  the  Indians  upon  Providence  his  House  is  burned 
and  himself  in  his  old  age  reduced  to  an  uncomfortable  and  dis 
abled  state,  out  of  Compassion  to  him  in  this  condition  The 
Council  doe  Order  and  Declare  that  if  the  sayd  Mr.  Williams 
shall  see  cause  and  desire  it,  he  shall  have  liberty  to  repay  re  into 
any  of  our  Towns  for  'his  security  and  comfortable  abode  during 
these  Public  Troubles,  he  behaving  himself  peaceably  and  inoffen 
sively,  and  not  disseminating  and  venting  any  of  his  different  opin 
ions  in  matters  of  religion  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  any."  * 

Roger  Williams  died  in  Proyidence  in  April,  1683,  proba 
bly  at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  showing  the  robustness  of  a 
wilderness  life,  active,  rough,  and  full  of  exposure.  He  is 
represented  by  living  descendants.  His  memory  is  hon 
ored  in  many  institutions,  —  as  by  a  beautiful  park  and  an 
ideal  statue  in  Providence. 

1  Mass.  Archives,  x.  233. 


IX. 


MRS.    HUTCHINSON   AND    THE    ANTINOMIAN 
CONTROVERSY. 

AMONG  the  many  reasons  we  have  for  satisfaction  in  the 
fading  away  into  the  troubled  past  of  the  old  polemical 
and  sectarian  bitterness  of  religious  controversy,  we  may 
welcome  the  disuse  of  many  once  familiar  terms  freely,  but 
perhaps  not  even  then  intelligently,  used  as  the  symbols 
and  technicalities  of  strife.  The  pulpit  and  the  theological 
tractate  made  these  terms  vernacular  to  classes  of  persons 
in  various  grades  of  life.  Recourse  must  now  be  had  to  an 
unabridged  dictionary  to  learn  their  meaning.  True,  the 
tricks  and  mysteries  of  the  stock-exchange  and  the  politi 
cal  campaign  have  brought  into  use  catchwords  and  vul 
garisms  by  no  means  self-interpretative,  and  which  may  in 
some  future  age  require  a  glossary  to  explain  them ;  but 
these  popular  catchwords  are  short,  generally  of  a  single 
syllable,  though  intimidating,  as  "  bears "  and  "  bulls." 
The  technicalities  of  the  old  polemics  ran  into  words  of  six 
and  even  seven  syllables.  Predestinarianism,  Solifidian- 
ism,  Supralapsarianism,  and  Antinomianism,  and  how  many 
more  like  terms,  representing  the  mastodons  and  mega 
theriums  of  a  fossilized  past  in  polemics,  when  brought 
under  exhibition  or  study  need  to  have  labels  in  current 
speech  to  explain  them.  It  might  even  be  that  some  hap 
hazard  reader,  catching  under  his  eye  this  formidable  word 
"  Antinomianism,"  may  have  supposed  that  it  had  some 
thing  to  do  with  the  drug  called  antimony. 

As  a  fierce  and  bitter  controversy,  defined  under  that 
hard  word,  came  very  near  to  wrecking  into  total  ruin  with 


\ 

THE  ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  301 

shame  and  passion  the  infant  colony  of  Massachusetts,  we 
must  put  the  word  into  a  modern  interpretation.  The 
frights  which  it  caused  were  in  part  bugbears,  but  in  part, 
too,  actual  moral  and  social  perils.  It  is  only  by  trans 
lating  the  jargon  of  polemics  into  plain  ethical  terms  that 
we  can  reach  the  vital  centre  of  that  bitter  strife. 

To  the  stern  and  earnest  Christian  of  the  Puritan  age, 
the  most  solemn  and  momentous  question  for  his  brooding 
thoughts,  to  be  asked  of  any  one  who  could  help  to  answer 
it,  was  this  :  "  How  shall  a  man  be  justified  with  God,"  — 
put  into  right  relations  with  God,  acquitted  by  discharged 
and  balanced  obligations  ?  It  was  admitted  that  the  Bible 
alone  could  answer  it  with  authority.  But  what  answer 
did  the  Bible  give  to  it  ?  One  called  the  great  Apostle, 
Paul,  taught  them  in  many  scattered  sentences,  called 
"  texts,"  —  as  Romans  iii.  28,  v.  1 ;  Galatians  ii.  16,  iii.  24, 
—  that  "  justification  "  was  to  be  obtained  by  faith,  not  by 
works,  and  that  perfect  obedience  to  the  "  law  "  was  im 
possible  for  sinful  men.  Another  Apostle,  James,  affirm 
ing  that  "  faith  without  works  is  dead,"  taught  them  "  that 
by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only."1  Here 
then  were  two  covenants,  the  one  of  "  works,"  the  other  of 
"faith."  To  the  Puritan,  the  truth  suspended  between 
these  two  covenants  was  infinitely  more  momentous  than 
the  issue  in  his  day  between  the  Ptolemaic  and  the  Coper- 
nican  theory  of  the  universe.  Seeking  still  to  modernize 
the  terms  and  bearings  of  the  controversy,  let  us  use  an 
illustration. 

A  debtor  is  hopelessly  overwhelmed  by  the  burden  of 
pecuniary  obligations.  Whether  crushed  by  misfortune,  or 
through  his  own  fault,  he  cannot  discharge  his  debts,  but 
is  firmly  held  by  them.  If  he  is  a  man  of  an  honest  con 
science  and  sound  principle  his  burden  is  two-fold.  In  one 
form  it  is  subjection  to  the  rightful  claims  of  others,  pressed 
demandingly  upon  him  and  holding  him  to  their  exactions ; 

1  James  ii.  24. 


302  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

in  the  other  form  it  is  a  painful,  crushing  self -infliction, 
with  a,  sense  of  failure  and  dismay.  In  the  human  and 
business  relations  of  such  a  hopeless  debtor  there  is  a 
method  of  relief  found  in  the  processes  of  insolvency  and 
bankruptcy.  The  creditors,  when  having  reason  to  believe 
that  there  is  no  holding  back,  no  fraudulent  concealment, 
consent  to  release  the  debtor  once  for  all  on  a  fragmentary 
1  payment,  leaving  him  free  from  the  obligations  of  the  past, 
to  try  the  future.  But  how  of  the  other  part  of  his  burden, 
the  inner  consciousness,  with  its  pangs  of  undischarged 
and  undischargeable  obligations,  —  what  of  that  ?  Is  there 
any  way  of  relief  from  it  consistent  with  conscience  and 
integrity  ?  There  is  one,  for  a  truly  upright  and  pure 
man.  If  he  feels  sincerely  and  heartily  assured  within  his 
breast  of  a  manly  integrity  of  purpose,  and  can  ascribe  his 
misfortune  to  causes  other  than  wilful  depraved  self-seek 
ing,  he  can  look  up  to  the  light  serenely,  and  feel  released 
from  his  inward  burden.  Of  the  sincerity  of  this  inward 
process  the  creditors  cannot  judge ;  they  can  have  no  cer 
tain  knowledge  of  it.  The  debtor  alone  is  his  acquitter  or 
con^emner. 

/We  have  in  this  illustration  the  elements  of  the  religious 
problem  with  which  we  are  now  concerned,  —  the  obliga 
tions  of  a  debtor  no  longer  to  his  fellow-men,  but  to  his 
God.  Accepted  doctrine,  certified  by  experience,  had  as 
sured  religious  believers  that  it  was  practically  impossible 
for  sinful  men  to  be  brought  into  right  relations  of  ap 
proval  and  acquittal  with  God,  —  that  is,  to  be  "  justified  " 
by  strictly  and  fully  meeting  the  exactions  of  His  law. 
But  an  alternative  of  leniency  and  mercy  was  provided 
here.  This  was  in  a  state  of  heart  profoundly  and  humbly 
conscious  of  undischarged  duty,  yet  willing  and  longing  to 
meet  such  obligations,  and  giving  a  contrite  and  trusting 
spirit  as  an  equivalent.  A  perfect  obedience  and  full  dis 
charge  of  debts  would  secure  "  justification  "  by  "  a  cove 
nant  of  works."  The  alternative  of  this  would  be  a  release 


THE    ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  303 

by  "  a  covenant  of  grace."  The  latter,  if  honestly  and 
sincerely  assured,  would  bring  perfect  peace,  as  to  a  debtor 
not  only  released  by  his  creditors,  but  quieted  by  the  con 
science  within,  j 

Here  were"~wo  forms  and  methods  of  "justification." 
Incident  to  a  belief  in,  a  reliance  upon  either  of  them,  and 
the  availing  one's  self  of  the  relief  afforded,  were  risks, 
possible  errors,  and  perils.  One  who  should  try,  even 
proximately,  to  meet  the  exactions  of  the  law,  as  under 
a  covenant  of  works,  would  find  life  a  constant  and  un 
ending  struggle,  through  vexations,  scruples,  and  com 
punctions, — watchful  at  every  point,  lest  in  observing  one 
injunction  he  should  fail  of  another  ;  balancing  punctilios  ; 
mechanically  faithful  even  in  trifling  matters ;  "  praying 
without  ceasing ; "  asking  a  blessing  upon  and  giving 
thanks  for  every  morsel  of  his  food,  that  it  might  not  be 
his  bane  ;  keeping  in  close  converse  with  God,  lest  he  be 
unguardedly  left  to  himself;  seeking  his  rule  in  every 
thing  in  the  Scriptures ;  practising  a  constant  introspec 
tion  and  reckoning  with  his  heart ;  noting  its  meteorology 
in  heights  and  falls  of  devotion  ;  confusing  sometimes  the 
protests  of  a  dyspeptic  or  bilious  stomach  with  the  pangs 
of  conscience ;  and  attempting  to  meet  the  terms  of  a  cove 
nant  of  works  by  "  sanctifi cation,"  -  —  by  becoming  holy. 

The  other  covenant,  that  of  "  grace,"  was  beset  by  many 
perplexities  and  dangers.  It  is  difficult  to  put  into  concise 
and  simple  terms  the  significance  of  the  word  "  antino- 
mianism,"  as  commonly  used.  Etymologically,  it  would 
signify  antagonism,  opposition,  to  the  law ;  but  by  usage  it 
meant,  without  the  help  of  the  law,  independence  of  it, 
and  elevation  above  it.  Instead  of  a  relief  from  obligation 
by  a  compliance  with  a  covenant  of  works,  it  trusted  to  an 
inward  assurance  of  having  been  brought  into  right  rela 
tions  with  God,  accepted  and  forgiven,  by  a  gracious  influ 
ence  of  his  Spirit.  The  process  and  work  were  wholly 
internal,  known  and  experienced  and  witnessed  only  by 


304  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

the  individual  himself.  The  creditors  of  an  insolvent 
debtor  could  not  possibly  have  any  positive  knowledge  of 
his  integrity  of  purpose.  But  God,  "  reading  the  heart," 
could  judge  of  its  sincerity,  its  penitence,  its  supreme 
longing  to  be  at  peace  with  him.  But  the  risks  of  delu 
sion,  of  enthusiasm,  of  self-deception,  and  of  applying 
flattering  unction  to  the  heart  and  conscience,  were  the 
besetting  perils  of  the  Antinomian.  He  might  be  tempted 
to  compound  for  a  class  of  sins  and  infirmities,  and  trust 
more  to  the  "  peace  "  which  he  enjoyed  in  spite  of  them 
than  to  the  fidelity  of  his  struggles  against  them.  All 
the  abounding  and  extraordinary  forms  of  sectarism 
among  the  fanatics  and  enthusiasts  that  swarmed  in  the 
Puritan  age  were  affiliated  with  Antinomianism.  As  they 
boasted  of  intimate  private  relations  and  intercourse  with 
God,  they  claimed  to  have  individual  revealings  from  him, 
—  promptings  of  what  they  should  do  or  leave  undone. 
Some  of  them  even  frankly  and  boldly  claimed  immunity 
.  for  serious  breaches  of  the  laws  of  morality.  None  of 
them  indeed  could  profess  to  claim  a  warrant  of  Scripture 
for  an  actual  contempt  of  the  methods  of  "  sanctlfication ;" 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  an  open  question  with  the  zealots 
of  Antinomianism  how  closely  they  must  keep  themselves 
to  the  law  of  "  works,"  though  repudiating  its  covenant  as 
a  whole.  They  could  not  fail  to  note  that  some  of  their 
neighbors,  who  sought  to  make  sanctification  their  rule, 
attained  only  to  what  is  known  as  sanctimony.  Oppo 
sition  to  "  Legalism  "  was  only  the  negative  side  of  Anti 
nomianism.  Deep  spiritual  exercises  and  experience  made 
its  positive  side.  "  Good  works  "  were  the  fruits  of  piety, 
not  proofs  of  it.  A  changed  heart  would  insure  holiness  ; 
a  form  of  life  might  only  assume  the  show  of  it. 

It  is  grateful  to  every  one  who  reviews  historically  the 
ensuing  controversy  about  Antinomianism  in  Massachu 
setts,  that  with  the  exception  of  a  single  case  there  was 
no  charge  or  proof  of  immoral  behavior,  of  looseness,  or 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  305 

license  brought  against  any  reputed  disciple  of  the  heresy. 
This  exceptional  case  was  a  very  marked  one.  It  was  that 
of  the  redoubtable  military  officer,  Capt.  John  Underbill, 
who  having  served  valorously  in  the  wars  of  the  Low 
Countries  and  in  Cadiz,  coming  to  Boston  with  Winthrop 
in  1630,  became  a  member  of  the  church,  and  Court 
Deputy.  He  was  a  man  of  prowess  and  a  sturdy  Indian- 
fighter,  and  as  such  was  to  the  Bay  Colony  much  what 
Miles  Standish  was  to  Plymouth.  Standish's  infirmities 
were  those  of  a  hot  temper,  and  of  using  strong  vernacular 
language.  Moreover,  he  was  never  "  under  covenant ; " 
but  Underbill  was.  His  gross  sensuality  —  the  relation 
of  which  by  Winthrop  illustrates  his  own  guilelessness  — 
brought  him  under  the  severest  church  penalties,  from 
which  he  secured  relief  and  restoration  by  protestations 
and  hypocritical  tears.  He  was  a  unique  and  a  pictur 
esque  offender.  Avowing  Antinomian  principles,  he  had 
the  front  to  give  the  Church  this  account  of  his  inward 
justification  :  "  He  had  been  under  a  spirit  of  bondage  and 
a  legal  way  five  years,  and  could  get  no  a&surance  ;  -till  at 
length,  as  he  was  taking  a  pipe  of  tobacco,  the  Spirit  sent 
home  an  absolute  promise  of  free  grace,  with  such  assur 
ance  and  joy  as  he  never  since  doubted  of  his  good  estate, 
neither  should  he,  though  he  should  fall  into  sin."  l 

Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  with  her  husband,  William,  and 
their  family,  arrived  in  Boston,  Sept.  18,  1634,  and  her 
brother-in-law,  Rev.  John  Wheelwright,  and  family,  arrived 
May  26,  1636.  The  mention  of  the  name  of  the  wife 
before  her  husband's  by  Winthrop  is  a  recognition  of  her 
more  prominent  position,  though  her  husband  was  in 
sympathy  with  her  opinions  and  shared  her  experiences. 
Winthrop,  with  a  possible  bias  of  judgment,  wrote  of  him 
as  "  a  man  of  a  very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts,  and 
wholly  guided  by  his  wife." 2  He  was  a  "  merchant." 
Wheelwright,  who  had  been  a  contemporary  with  Cromwell 

1  Winthrop,  i.  270.  2  ibid.,  i.  295. 

20 


306  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

at  Cambridge,  and  vicar  of  a  church  near  Alford,  was  dis 
placed  by  Laud  for  nonconformity.  The  avowed  purpose 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  of  some  others  who  came  with 
her  was  to  renew  the  satisfaction  of  enjoying  "  Mr.  Cotton's 
ministry."  We  are  reminded  here,  in  view  of  the  large 
immigration  and  the  influx  of  persons  of  consequence  at 
that  period,  that  the  colony  must  have  witnessed  here  the 
meeting  of  many  parted  friends  who  had  been  in  close 
relations  of  friendship  and  religious  sympathy  in  England. 
Possibly,  too,  in  some  cases  the  seeds  of  earlier  alienations 
may  have  been  transplanted  here.  But  strong  and  tender 
ties  bound  many  of  them  together,  especially  those  who 
had  shared  in  common  misfortunes.  The  young  exiled 
scholar  John  Harvard,  for  instance,  whose  benedictive 
generosity  has  been  fruitful  here  for  more  centuries  than 
he  lived  years  upon  this  soil,  renewed  during  his  brief 
sojourn  the  fondest  associations  of  his  academic  life.  The 
records  of  the  first  church  show  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
was  admitted  to  membership  in  November,  1634.  This 
was  a  month  after  her  husband's  admission.  The  delay  in 
her  case  is  explained  by  what  gives  us  a  forecast  of  the 
agitation  of  which  she  was  to  be  the  cause.  Her  fellow- 
passenger,  Symmes,  afterward  minister  of  Charlestown, 
communicated  to  the  church  the  uneasiness  he  had  felt 
as  to  her  opinions  and  elations  of  spirit,  and  the  "  venting 
of  her  revelations,"  on  the  passage.  Her  husband  became 
a  freeman  March  4, 1635,  and  was  at  once  sent  by  Boston 
as  a  deputy  to  the  Court. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  immediately  made  herself  known,  con 
fided  in,  and  loved,  by  a  steadily  increasing  number  of 
intimates,  by  her  kindly  services  to  those  of  her  own  sex, 
in  the  privacies  of  their  own  homes,  in  their  special  needs. 
It  seems  as  if  she  limited  this  most  intimate  friendliness 
to  the  women  of  her  little  neighborhoods  of  Boston ;  for 
while  her  influence  prevailed  here  on  the  opening  of  the 
conflict,  it  does  not  appear  to  have  extended  outside.  She 


THE    ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  307 

possessed  marvellously  that  gift,  from  her  time  onward 
of  high  esteem  in  New  England,  known  as  "capacity." 
She  could  minister  to  body,  mind,  and  spirit,  and  had  skill 
in  a  comprehensive  pathology.  Welde,  of  Roxbury,  ever 
unfriendly  to  her,  describes  her  as  "  a  woman  of  a  haughty 
and  fierce  carriage,  of  a  nimble  wit  and  active  spirit,  and 
a  very  voluble  tongue,  more  bold  than  a  man,  though  in  un 
derstanding  and  judgement  inferior  to  many  women."  He 
also  calls  her  "  the  American  Jezabel."  Though  he  should 
have  known  her,  as  before  he  wrote  she  was  an  inmate  of 
his  brother's  home,  we  cannot  accept  this  sharp  judgment 
of  her.  More  true  and  appreciative  are  other  words  of 
his:  "A  woman  very  helpful  in  the  time  of  childbirth,  and 
other  occasions  of  bodily  disease,  and  well  furnished  with 
means  for  those  purposes."1  Her  services  were  those  of 
a  friend,  not  of  a  hireling.  The  women  revealed  to  her 
their  experiences  and  burdens.  As  these  were  matters  of 
comparison  in  confidence,  it  was  inevitable  that  she  should 
be  at  the  risk  of  gossip,  actively  and  passively.  Maladies 
of  mind  and  spirit  were  more  prevalent  and  severe  than 
those  of  the  body,  under  the  morbid  conditions  of  life  and 
thought  given  to  religious  questioning  and  brooding.  The 
transition  was  easy,  in  these  confidences,  to  free  converse 
on  the  help  to  be  derived  from  the  teachings  of  the  differ 
ent  ministers  in  sermons,  conferences,  and  lectures.  These 
soon  reached  down  to  matters  concerning  the  deepest  se 
crets  of  one's  being.  There  was  a  spirit  of  cheerfulness, 
and  an  evident  relief  from  the  sternness  of  the  prevailing 
teaching,  in  the  views  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  She  was  as 
sured  that  the  consciousness  of  a  Heaven-directed  heart, 
and  a  prevailing  purpose  of  rectitude,  would  secure  to  the 
spirit  a  serenity  not  to  be  attained  by  the  formalisms  of 
piety.  She  drew  a  broad  distinction  between  an  external 
devoutness  in  deportment,  tone,  speech,  and  method  of  life, 
with  rigidity  and  austerity  of  aspect,  and  that  penetrating 

1  Welde,  Short  Story,  p.  31. 


308  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

peace  of  heart  which  confided  itself  to  divine  grace  working 
within.  Many  of  the  incessant  religious  meetings  were 
of  men  only.  But  in  those  of  both  the  sexes,  silence  was 
the  attitude  of  women,  except  when  relating  their  religious 
experience.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  soon  gathered  around  her, 
first  in  her  own  home,  and  occasionally  in  the  homes  of 
others,  groups  and  companies  of  women,  ranging  from  fifty 
to  near  a  hundred,  who  seem  first  to  have  occupied  them 
selves  with  doing  only  more  freely  and  searchingly  what 
was  done  in  every  Puritan  household, — -repeating  and  dis 
cussing  the  last  delivered  sermon.  As  she  herself  had 
come  over  to  New  England  again  to  enjoy  the  ministra 
tions  of  Mr.  Cotton,  her  preference  and  strong  approval 
of  him  were  very  manifest.  This  proved  in  the  event  to 
be  prejudicial  to  the  general  esteem  for  a  time  of  that  hon 
ored  teacher.  When  the  conflict  arose,  he  was  claimed  to 
favor  and  side  with  certain  opinions,  and  when  he  afterward 
complained  of  misjudgment,  and  alleged  that  he  had  been 
made  a  covert  and  ensnared,  his  exceptions  and  rectifica 
tions  exposed  him  to  suspicions  of  inconsistency,  if  not 
even  of  duplicity.  As  a  member  of  the  Boston  church, 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  could  not  enjoy  his  ministrations  as 
teacher  without  listening  also  to  those  of  the  pastor  Wilson. 
Her  manifest  and  freely  expressed  preference  of  the  preach 
ing  of  the  former,  and  her  depreciation  of  that  of  the  latter, 
was  the  entering  wedge  of  the  parting  controversy  which 
was  to  convulse  the  colony.  To  the  keen  and  watchful 
discernment  of  this  gifted  woman  the  two  elders  had 
adopted  and  presented  two  widely  contrasted  schemes  for 
the  nurture  of  the  religious  life.  The  teaching  of  Wilson 
covered  external  observance,  deportment,  and  sanctifying 
methods  severely  exacting;  the  teaching  of  Cotton  aimed 
to  kindle  a  deep  heart-piety,  calm,  serene,  and  self-assuring. 
The  reports  of  her  critical  judgments  expressed  with  force 
and  frankness  went  forth  from  her  meetings  through  the 
tongues  of  her  hearers,  with  a  more  or  less  adequate 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  309 

comprehension  of  their  full  significance,  to  be  received  and 
repeated  under  the  same  condition  of  risks  as  to  their 
intelligent  apprehension  by  those  who^  caught  the  echoes 
of  them.  Comparisons  and  personalities  were  the  raw 
material  of  strife  ;  and  some  persons  other  than  the  wholly 
illiterate  began  to  hear  and  use  words  new  to  them. 

At  this  point,  in  preparing  to  follow  out  the  occasion 
for  the  intense  excitement  and  even  passionate  altercations 
leading  to  severe  judicial  proceedings  which  were  to  follow, 
it  may  be  well  to  remind  ourselves  to  what  an  extent  per 
sonal  relations  of  friendship  or  alienation  entered  into  it. 
This  was  especially  one  of  that  class  of  controversies  which 
engage  feelings  and  sentiments  more  strongly  than  opin 
ions  and  convictions.  The  discussions  and  altercations 
provoked  by  the  original  points  of  variance  soon  ran  into 
abstruse  metaphysical  and  technical  forms  of  expression, 
in  which  it  was  utterly  impossible  that  the  mass  of  those 
involved  in  them  should  follow  them  with  any  clear  mental 
apprehension.  Of  course,  therefore,  many  were  parted  by 
prejudgments  and  personal  preferences  between  the  parties, 
and  these  were  respectively  led  by  the  most  honored  and 
influential  alike  of  the  magistrates,  the  citizens,  and  the 
ministers.  The  town  of  Boston,  with  nearly  all  the  mem 
bers  of  its  church,  came  to  pronounce  their  adherence  to 
Mrs.  Hutchinson ;  while  the  country  towns  and  churches, 
with  their  elders,  were  almost  without  exception  from  first 
to  last  out  of  sympathy  with  her. 

The  public  agitation,  however,  independently  of  what 
came  from  rumor  as  to  the  teachings  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
in  her  women's  meetings,  was  opened  by  other  parties, 
whose  appearance  and  agency  we  must  now  notice.  Win- 
throp1  notes  the  arrival  here  on  Oct.  6,  1635,  of  "two 
great  ships,"  with  a  notable  company.  The  two  of  these 
most  distinguished  in  historic  fame  for  strong  traits  of 
character,  for  strange  careers,  and  for  their  tragic  fates, 

1  Winthrop,  i.  169. 


310  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

were  Henry  Vane  and  Hugh  Peter,  as  he  himself  wrote  his 
name.  It  was  just  at  the  time  when  the  Court  had  sen 
tenced  Williams  to  banishment.  Wintkrop  thus  writes  of 
Vane  :  — 

"  Here  came  also  one  Mr.  Henry  Vane,  son  and  heir  to  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  comptroller  of  the  king's  house,  who  being  a  young 
gentleman  of  excellent  parts,  and  had  been  employed  by  his  father 
(when  he  was  ambassadour)  in  foreign  affairs,  yet,  being  called  to 
the  obedience  of  the  gospel,  forsook  the  honours  and  preferments 
of  the  court  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  Christ  in  their  purity  here. 
His  father  being  very  averse  to  this  way  (as  no  way  savouring  the 
power  of  religion)  would  hardly  have  consented  to  his  coming 
hither,  but  that,  acquainting  the  king  with  his  son's  disposition 
and  desire,  he  commanded  him  to  send  him  hither,  and  gave  him 
license  for  three  years'  stay  here." 

Of  the  other  noted  passenger  Winthrop  writes :  — 

"  Mr.  Peter,  pastor  of  the  English  church  in  Rotterdam,  who, 
being  persecuted  by  the  English  ambassadour,  —  who  would  have 
brought  his  and  other  churches  to  the  English  discipline,  —  and 
not  having  had  his  health  these  many  years,  intended  to  advise 
with  the  ministers  here  about  his  removal." 

He  succeeded  Williams  at  Salem.  Mr.  Vane  was  ad 
mitted  a  member  of  the  Boston  church  Nov.  1,  1635, 
within  a  month  after  his  arrival.  It  may  well  excite  our 
surprise  to  note  how  these  two  strangers  at  once  made 
themselves  prominent,  by  appearing  and  taking  part  in  a 
very  delicate  matter  of  variance  between  the  two  most  in 
fluential  magistrates  of  the  Colony.  John  Haynes  was 
then  Governor,  but  was  soon  to  remove  to  Connecticut. 
There  had  always  been  a  lack  of  perfect  cordiality  in  the 
relations  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  but  mediation 
had  to  a  degree  harmonized  them.  At  this  critical  time 
the  variance  was  again  opened.  It  touched  the  point  that 
when  in  office  Winthrop  had  "  carried  matters  with  more 


THE  ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  311 

lenity  and  Dudley  with  more  severity." 1  Factions  had 
thus  been  raised  among  the  people,  each  of  the  two  having 
his  adherents.  Some  of  the  magistrates  and  elders  were 
prompted  by  Vane  and  Peter  to  hold  a  meeting  in  Boston 
for  disposing  of  the  matter,  "  where,  after  the  Lord  had 
been  sought,  Mr.  Vane  declared  the  occasion  of  the  meet 
ing,  and  the  fruit  aimed  at,  a  more  firm  and  friendly 
uniting  of  minds."  Vane  informed  Winthrop  of  the  cen 
sures  he  had  heard  of  his  leniency,  which  had  not  come 
to  Winthrop's  knowledge,  and  with  some  tender  pathos 
pleaded  for  full  accord  between  him  and  Dudley.  Gov 
ernor  Haynes,  apologetically,  and  yet  frankly,  unbosomed 
himself  in  referring  "  to  one  or  two  passages  wherein  he 
conceived  that  Winthrop  dealt  too  remissly  in  point  of 
justice."  The  ever  gentle  and  magnanimous  Winthrop  re 
plied  that  he  might  in  some  matters  have  been  misunder 
stood.  But  he  advanced  as  his  judgment  in  general, — 

"  that,  in  the  infancy  of  plantations,  justice  should  be  adminis 
tered  with  more  lenity  than  in  a  settled  state,  because  people  were 
then  more  apt  to  transgress,  partly  of  ignorance  of  new  laws  and 
orders,  partly  through  oppression  of  business  and  other  straits ; 
but,  if  it  might  be  made  clear  to  him  'that  it  was  an  errour,  he 
would  be  ready  to  take  up  a  stricter  course." 

The  matter  was  referred  to  the  ministers  to  consider 
and  report  a  rule  on  the  next  day.  The  conclusion  and 
advice  were  — 

"  that  strict  discipline,  both  in  criminal  offences  and  in  martial 
matters,  was  more  needful  in  plantations  than  in  a  settled  state, 
as  tending  to  the  honour  and  safety  of  the  gospel." 

Winthrop  said  — 

"  he  was  convinced  that  he  had  failed  in  over-much  lenity  and 
remissness,  and  would  endeavour  (by  God's  assistance)  to  take  a 
more  strict  course  hereafter." 

1  Winthrop,  I  177. 


312  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

He  was  soon  to  have  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  an 
austerity  and  severity  not  natural  to  him.  We  mark  at 
this  point  the  strengthening  in  the  Colony  of  a  harsh  spirit 
already  sufficiently  strong.  The  meeting  broke  up  with 
"  a  renewal  of  love,"  and  an  agreement  upon  ten  articles, 
covering  strictness,  courtesy,  and  formal  observances  in 
Court.  The  last  of  these  had  significance  for  men  in  a 
wilderness  who  had  seen  pageantry,  robes,  liveries,  and 
processions  :  "  The  magistrates  shall  appear  more  solemnly 
in  publick,  with  attendance,  apparel,  and  open  notice  of 
their  entrance  into  the  court."  Vane  and  Peter  were  thus 
put  on  a  footing  with  the  first  comers,  and  initiated  into 
contentions  in  which  they  were  to  take  a  full  part.  The 
war  against  the  Pequot  Indians  was  now  in  preparation, 
amid  many  distractions  and  perplexities.  The  readiness 
and  heartiness  with  which  Yane  threw  himself  into  the 
service  of  the  Colony  at  this  juncture  may  relieve  his  offi 
cious  engagement  in  what  was  to  be  a  perilous  contest. 

It  was  not  till  the  end  of  October,  1636,  when  she  had 
been  two  years  in  Boston,  doing  her  works  of  love  and 
exercising  her  gifts,  that  Winthrop  mentions  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson,  and  as  follows  :  — 

"  One  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  member  of  the  church  of  Boston,  a 
woman  of  a  ready  wit  and  bold  spirit,  brought  over  with  her  two 
dangerous  errours :  1.  That  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells 
in  a  justified  person ;  2.  That  no  sanctification  can  help  to  evi 
dence  to  us  our  justification.  From  these  two  grew  many  branches, 
as  (1)  Our  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  as  a  Christian  remains 
dead  to  every  spiritual  action,  and  hath  no  gifts  nor  graces  other 
than  such  as  are  in  hypocrites,  nor  any  other  sanctification  but 
the  Holy  Ghost  himself."  ' 

A  pause  must  be  allowed  here  to  recognize  an  element 
which  worked  effectively  and  mischievously  in  the  coming 
strife.  The  reader  may  have  noticed  that  many  of  the 

i  Winthrop,  i.  200. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  313 

quotations  already  made  from  Winthrop  in  these  pages 
end  with  an  "etc."  In  some  cases  this  sign  probably  indi 
cates  a  lack  of  time  for  the  writer  to  complete  an  intended 
fuller  statement.  In  others,  it  evidently  represents  an  un 
finished  action  of  his  own  mind,  and  intimates  to  the 
reader  the  opinions  or  conclusions  which  the  writer  would 
have  reached  or  expressed.  Nor  is  this  all  Wiiithrop,  all 
through  this  controversy  especially,  and  in  other  cases,  was 
in  the  habit  of  drawing  "  inferences  "  or  deductions  of  his 
own  from  the  avowed  opinions  of  others.  There  was  enough 
even  in  the  most  clearly  stated  propositions  of  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson  and  her  friends  to  try  the  faculties  and  to  startle  the 
apprehensions  of  those  not  in  sympathy  with  her.  But 
when  her  opponents  proceeded  to  infer  other  propositions 
which  they  thought  must  naturally  and  consistently  follow 
from  her  premises,  they  introduced  many  -new  complica 
tions  and  perplexities  in  the  controversy.  Winthrop,  as 
just  quoted,  draws  one  of  his  own  inferences  from  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  expressed  opinions,  evidently  intending  to 
have  drawn  more  which  he  had  in  mind  as  objectionable. 
Cotton  (foremost  among  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  earlier  friends), 
Wheelwright,  and  others  complained  that  they  were  thus 
made  answerable  for  opinions  and  notions  not  really 
chargeable  upon  them.  Winthrop  adds  to  the  above, — 
"  There  joined  with  her  in  these  opinions  a  brother  of 
hers,  one  Mr.  Wheelwright,  a  silenced  minister,  sometimes 
in  England."  It  was  with  him,  not  with  her,  that  the 
strife  was  to  be  opened,  as  Winthrop  dates  it,  Oct.  30, 
1636.  The  church  of  Boston  was  already  furnished  with 
a  pastor  and  a  teacher,  well-trained  and  able  men,  by  the 
standard  of  their  time,  and  up  to  the  opening  trouble 
equally  confided  in  and  beloved. 

It  now  transpired  that  many  members  of  the  church, 
having  come  under  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and 
her  brother-in-law,  had  "propounded"  that  the  latter  be 
called  to  office  as  an  additional  teacher,  Oct.  30,  1636. 


314  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"  One  of  the  church  stood  up  and  said  he  could  not  con 
sent,  etc."  This  was  undoubtedly  Winthrop.  After  his 
"  etc."  he  gives  his  reasons.  They  were  reasons  of  force 
and  persuasion.  The  church  was  well  furnished  — 

"  with  able  ministers,  whose  spirits  they  knew,  and  whose  labours 
God  had  blessed  in  much  love  and  sweet  peace,  he  thought  it  not 
fit  (no  necessity  urging)  to  put  the  welfare  of  the  church  to  the 
least  hazard,  as  he  feared  they  should  do,  by  calling  in  one  whose 
spirit  they  knew  not,  and  one  who  seemed  to  dissent  in  judge 
ment,  and  instanced  in  two  points,  which  he  delivered  in  a  late 
exercise  there :  1.  That  a  believer  was  more  than  a  creature ; 
2.  Th^,t  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  a  believer  were  united. 
Hereupon  the  governour  [Vane]  spake,  that  he  marvelled  at  this, 
seeing  that  Mr.  Cotton  had  lately  approved  his  doctrine.  To  this 
Mr.  Cotton  answered,  that  he  did  not  remember  the  first,  and 
desired  Mr.  Wheelwright  to  explain  his  meaning.  He  denied  not 
the  points,  but  showed  upon  what  occasion  he  delivered  them."  l 

Here  we  have  the  elements  of  the  strife,  the  chief  par 
ties  in  moving  it,  with  an  earnest  listening  group,  silent, 
or  if  speaking,  not  reported  to  us.  An  attempt  was  made 
at  reconciliation.  Winthrop  said  that  though  he  might 
possibly  agree  with  Mr.  Wheelwright,  and  — 

"  thought  so  reverendly  of  his  godliness  and  abilities,  so  as  he 
could  be  content  to  live  under  such  a  ministry,  yet,  seeing  he  was 
apt  to  raise  doubtful  disputations,  he  could  not  consent  to  choose 
him  to  that  place." 

The  church  yielded,  that  Wheelwright  might  be  called  to 
another  at  Mount  Wollaston. 

The  breach  was  to  be  widened,  not  closed.  Winthrop 
had  given  offence  to  some  of  the  brethren  by  what  he  had 
said  against  Wheelwright.  He  should  have  charged  him 
privately,  not  publicly.  "  In  his  speech  appeared  some 
bitterness."  By  his  "  inferences "  he  had  ascribed  to 

i  Winthrop,  i.  202. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  315 

Wheelwright  some  opinions  which  he  did  not  hold.  Partly 
by  apology  and  partly  by  explanation  Winthrop  vindicated 
himself,  but  he  stood  stoutly  by  his  "  inferences  "  as  follow 
ing  from  Wheelwright's  avowed  opinions.  We  may  believe 
that  Vane  took  part  in  the  dispute.  In  conclusion,  Mr. 
Winthrop  besought  of  Wheelwright  - 

"  seriously  and  affectionately,  that  seeing  these  variances  grew 
(and  some  estrangement  withal)  from  some  words  and  phrases 
[as  "  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  real  union  "]  which  were 
of  human  invention,  and  tended  to  doubtful  disputation  rather 
than  to  edification,  and  had  no  footing  in  Scripture,  nor  had  been 
in  use  in  the  purest  churches  for  three  hundred  years  after  Christ, 
that  for  the  peace  of  the  church,  etc.,  they  might  be  forborn." 

The  noble  magistrate  added,  that  it  was  not  his  call  or 
place  publicly  to  dispute  these  matters ;  but  if  any  brother 
privately  "  desired  to  see  what  light  he  walked  by,  he 
would  be  ready  to  impart  it  to  him."  No  one  of  the  church 
replied.  Soon  after  Winthrop  "  wrote  his  mind  fully,  with 
such  scriptures  and  arguments  as  came  to  hand,  and  sent 
it  to  Mr.  Cotton."  * 

At  the  General  Court,  May  25,  1636,  the  members  in 
their  pride  and  hope  in  having  among  them  the  son  and 
heir  of  a  privy-counsellor,  had  assigned  the  sage  and  moder 
ate  Winthrop  to  the  second  place  in  the  government,  and  put 
over  him  the  young  and  inexperienced  enthusiast  Vane, 
of  the  age  of  twenty-four,  who  had  been  in  the  country  not 
yet  eight  months.  "Fifteen  great  ships"  in  the  harbor 
gave  him  "  a  volley  of  shot,"  and  the  Governor  invited  the 
masters  to  dinner. 

The  next  phase  of  the  contention  is  thus  presented  by 
Winthrop,  under  date  of  Nov.  17, 1636  :  — 

"  The  governour,  Mr.  Vane,  a  wise  and  godly  gentleman,  held 
with  Mr.  Cotton  and  many  others  the  indwelling  of  the  person  of 

1  Winthrop,  i.  203,  204. 


316  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

the  Holy  Ghost  in  a  believer,  and  went  so  far  beyond  the  rest  as 
to  maintain  a  personal  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but  the  deputy, 
with  the  pastor  and  divers  others,  denied  both ;  and  the  question 
proceeded  so  far  by  disputation  (in  writing,  for  the  peace'  sake  of 
the  church,  which  all  were  tender  of)  as  at  length  they  could  not 
find  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  Scripture,  nor  in  the  primi 
tive  churches  three  hundred  years  after  Christ.  So  that  all  agree 
ing  in  the  chief  matter  of  substance,  viz.,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
God,  and  that  he  doth  dwell  in  the  believers  (as  the  Father  and 
Son  both  are  said  also  to  do),  but  whether  by  his  gifts  and  power 
only,  or  by  any  other  manner  of  presence,  seeing  the  Scripture 
doth  not  declare  it — it  was  earnestly  desired  that  the  word  'per 
son  '  might  be  forborn,  being  a  term  of  human  invention,  and 
tending  to  doubtful  disputation  in  this  case."  J 

Now  we  are  presented  with  a  scene  and  occasion  which, 
with  its  mingling  of  sentiment,  pathos,  tears,  and  a  seem 
ing  vacillation  of  purpose  on  the  part  of  Vane,  offers  to  the 
reader  matter  for  his  own  interpretation. 

Governor  Vane,  in  previous  conference  with  the  Council 
and  some  others,  had  procured  a  meeting  of  the  General 
Court  to  be  called,  out  of  course,  for  Dec.  7,  1636,  on  a 
representation  which  he  had  made  to  the  magistrates  that 
letters  received  from  friends  recalled  him  home  on  matters 
of  urgency  in  his  private  affairs.  The  Court  records  do 
not  describe  what  followed  as  fully  as  does  Winthrop. 
Vane  made  known  the  case  ;  then  writes  Winthrop  :  — 

"  One  of  the  assistants  using  some  patheticall  passages  of  the 
loss  of  such  a  governour  in  a  time  of  such  danger  as  did  hang 
over  us  from  the  Indians  and  French,  the  governour  brake 
forth  into  tears,  and  professed  that  howsoever  the  causes  pro 
pounded  for  his  departure  were  such  as  did  concern  the  utter  ruin 
of  his  outward  estate,  yet  he  would  rather  have  hazarded  all,  than 
have  gone  from  them  at  this  time,  if  something  else  had  not 
pressed  him  more,  viz.,  the  inevitable  clanger  he  saw  of  God's 
judgements  to  come  upon  us  for  these  differences  and  dissensions 

i  Winthrop,  i.  206. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  317 

which  he  saw  amongst  us,  and  the  scandalous  imputations  brought 
upon  himself,  as  if  he  should  be  the  cause  of  all ;  and  therefore 
he  thought  it  best  for  him  to  give  place  for  a  time,  etc.  Upon  this 
the  court  concluded  that  it  would  not  be  fit  to  give  way  to  his 
departure  upon  these  grounds.  Whereupon  he  recalled  himself, 
and  professed  that  the  reasons  concerning  his  own  estate  were 
sufficient  to  his  own  satisfaction  for  his  departure,  and  therefore 
he  desired  the  court  he  might  have  leave  to  go  ;  as  for  the  other 
passage,  it  slipped  him  out  of  his  passion,  and  not  out  of  judge 
ment."1 

The  Court  then  consented  to  his  departure,  assured,  as 
the  record  says,  "  of  his  serious  resolution  to  return  to  us 
again."2  Though  the  Court  took  measures  for  a  special, 
meeting,  —  it  not  being  thought  discreet  to  risk  the  gov 
ernment  on  the  life  of  the  deputy,  —  there  proved  to  be  no 
occasion  for  it ;  for  in  the  mean  while  some  of  the  Boston 
church,  after  consultation,  sent  to  the  Court  a  protest 
against  Vane's  leaving  for  the  reason  assigned.  On  this 
he,  professing  himself  "  an  obedient  child  of  the  church," 
added  that  "  without  its  leave  he  durst  not  go  away." 

The  end  was  not  yet.  The  court  of  deputies  proceeded 
to  call  in  the  elders,  to  advise  about  pacifying  the  differ 
ences  of  opinion  so  heated  among  them.  Some  of  the 
elders  had  "  drawn  into  heads  all  the  points  wherein  they 
suspected  Mr.  Cotton  did  differ  from  them,  and  presented 
them  to  him."  Vane  took  great  offence  at  this  prelimi 
nary  action  of  the  ministers.  The  sturdy  and  plain  speak 
ing  Hugh  Peter  confronted  Vane,  as  if  he  had  been  the 
spring  of  all  the  troubles,  telling  him  — 

"  how  it  had  sadded  the  ministers'  spirits  that  he  should  be  jealous 
of  their  meetings,  or  seem  to  restrain  their  liberty,  etc.  The 
Governour  excused  his  speech  as  sudden  and  upon  a  mistake.  Mr. 
Peter  told  him  also  that  before  he  came,  within  less  than  two 
years  since,  the  churches  were  in  peace,  etc.  The  governour 
answered  that  the  light  of  the  Gospel  brings  a  sword,  and  the 
1  Winthrop,  i.  207-208.  2  Records,  i.  185. 


318  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

children  of  the  bondwoman  would  persecute  those  of  the  free 
woman.  Mr.  Peter  also  besought  him  humbly  to  consider  his 
youth,  and  short  experience  in  the  things  of  God,  and  to  beware 
of  peremptory  conclusions,  which  he  perceived  him  to  be  very 
apt  unto."  l 

The  reader  may  well  infer  that  such  altercation  and 
bickering  as  this,  between  two  such  spirits  as  were  repre 
sented  by  Vane  and  Peter,  would  not  help  to  harmonize 
the  relations  between  those  so  scripturally  classed  by  the 
Governor  as  respectively  under  "  a  covenant  of  grace " 
and  "  a  covenant  of  works."  Winthrop  adds  that  Mr.  Wil 
son,  with  evident  reflections  on  a  somewhat  ambiguous 
sermon  preached  on  the  same  day  by  Cotton,  — 

"  made  a  very  sad  speech  of  the  condition  of  our  churches,  and  the 
inevitable  danger  of  separation  if  these  differences  and  aliena 
tions  among  brethren  were  not  speedily  remedied ;  and  laid  the 
blame  upon  these  new  opinions  risen  up  amongst  us,  which  all  the 
magistrates  except  the  governour  and  two  others  did  confirm,  and 
all  the  ministers  but  two." 

Out  of  the  jargon  of  the  discussion  which  followed,  the 
least  unintelligible  sentence  is  the  question  whether  "  evi 
dent  sanctification  could  be  evidence  to  a  man  without  a 
concurrent  sight  of  his  justification  ?  "  Vane  and  Cotton 
answered  "  no."  Of  course  Mr.  Cotton  took  Mr.  Wilson's 
speech  "  very  ill,"  and  with  "  divers  others  "  went  to  ad 
monish  him.  But  Wilson  stood  for  the  right  of  a  free  utter 
ance  of  opinion  which  had  been  asked  of  them  all  by  the 
Court.  He  was  reproached  with  bitterness  on  all  sides  in 
the  congregation,  whereas  that  under  the  strong  urgency 
of  Vane,  Winthrop  had  but  one  or  two  supporters.  But 
Wilson  firmly  sustained  his  own  warm  friend,  and  "  an 
swered  them  all  with  words  of  truth  and  soberness,  and 
with  marvellous  wisdom."  Well  might  Winthrop  add, 
"  It  was  strange  to  see  how  the  common  people  were  led, 

1  Eecords,  i.  209. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  319 

by  example,  to  condemn  him  [Mr.  Wilson]  in  that  which 
(it  was  very  probable)  divers  of  them  did  not  understand." 
It  would  be  wearisome  and  profitless  to  follow  into  fur 
ther  details  this  phase  of  the  controversy.  With  alternate 
attempts,  as  it  advanced,  to  use  "  love  and  gentleness,"  and 
with  manifest  interminglings  of  very  bitter  feelings,  the 
strife  increased  till  it  was  evident  that  it  could  find  its 
close  only  in  some  civil  action  or  in  a  catastrophe.  For 
tunately  there  was  then  no  printing-press  in  the  country, 
and  when  there  was  a  brief  intermission  in  the  oral  dispu 
tations  in  the  meeting-house,  many  of  the  contestants  had 
recourse  to  written  papers  which  were  copied  and  passed 
around.  These,  not  to  our  loss,  are  not  extant.  Cotton 
wisely  took  care  that  all  his  own  papers  on  the  quarrel 
should  be  burned  before  his  death. 

Simply  as  another  illustration  of  the  leading  aim  under 
which  this  volume  is  written,  —  namely,  to  trace  the  per- 
plexities  and  vexations,  as  well  as  the  nobleness  and 
virtues  of  these  Puritan  people  to  their  way  of  receiving 
and  using  the  Scriptures,  —  one  further  quotation  from 
Winthrop  will  be  helpful :  — 

"  Other  opinions  brake  out  publicly  in  the  church  of  Boston,  — 
as  that  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelt  in  a  believer  as  he  is  in  heaven ;  that 
a  man  is  justified  before  he  believes ;  and  that  faith  is  no  cause  of 
justification.  And  others  spread  more  secretly,  as  that  the  letter 
of  the  Scripture  holds  forth  nothing  but  a  covenant  of  works;  and 
that  the  covenant  of  grace  was  the  spirit  of  the  Scripture,  which 
was  known  only  to  believers ;  and  that  this  covenant  of  works 
was  given  by  Moses  in  the  ten  commandments ;  that  there  was  a 
seed  (viz.,  Abraham's  carnal  seed)  went  along  in  this,  and  there 
was  a  spirit  and  life  in  it,  by  virtue  of  which  a  man  might  attain 
to  any  sanctification  in  gifts  and  graces,  and  might  have  spiritual 
communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  yet  be  damned.1  .  .  .  All  the 
congregation  of  Boston,  except  four  or  five,  closed  with  these 
opinions,  or  the  most  of  them;  but  one  of  the  brethren  [Win- 

1  Winthrop,  i.  211. 


320  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

throp]  wrote  against  them,  and  bore  witness  to  the  truth,  together 
with  the  pastor,  and  very  few  others  joined  with  them.1  The  rest 
of  the  ministers  "  taking  offence  at  Cotton's  doctrines  and  sympathy 
with  the  obnoxious  party,  "drew  out  sixteen  points,"  some  of 
which  "  he  cleared,"  but  on  others  "  he  gave  not  satisfaction." 

The  reader  is  advised  not  to  attempt  to  work  his  brain 
upon  these  propositions  with  an  effort  to  understand  what 
they  mean,  or  to  explain  how  human  beings,  with  the 
ordinary  cares  of  life  to  engage  them,  could  possibly  stir 
themselves  into  an  excitement  concerning  them.  Their 
remoteness  of  meaning  and  of  intelligibleness  to  us  will 
have  their  due  effect,  if  they  help  us  to  realize  that  we 
are  not  to  judge  by  our  own  standards  men  and  women 
of  a  long  past,  who  could  not  only  listen  intently  to  the 
discussion  of  such  matters,  but  could  also  quarrel  bitterly 
about  them. 

Replies  were  made  to  Cotton,  but  only  to  the  further 
vexing  of  the  strife.  He  seems  to  have  been  the  only  one 
who  tried  to  be  an  umpire,  moderating  between  the  two  par 
ties,  and  leaving  himself  open  to  misunderstanding  by  both 
of  them.  The  ministers  agreed  to  give  up  all  their  week 
day  lectures  for  three  weeks,  "  that  they  might  bring 
things  to  some  issue."  A  Fast  was  kept  in  all  the  churches 
on  Jan.  20,  163^,  for  sundry  reasons,  among  them  "the 
dissensions  in  our  churches."  A  ship  being  about  to  sail 
for  England,  there  was  reasonable  anxiety  and  alarm  as 
to  the  reports  she  would  carry  of  the  prevailing  distrac 
tions,  to  the  grievous  injury  of  the  troubled  Colony.  So 
sermons  and  letters  were  written  to  relieve  the  aspect  of 
things  and  to  put  the  best  face  on  them,  as  aiming  only 
in  various  ways  "  to  advance  the  grace  of  God."  Win- 
throp  writes :  — 

"  Every  occasion  increased  the  contention,  and  caused  great 
alienation  of  minds ;  and  the  members  of  Boston  (frequenting  the 

I  Winthrop,  i.  212. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  321 

lectures  of  other  ministers)  did  make  much  disturbance  by  public 
questions,  and  objections  to  their  doctrines ;  and  it  began  to  be  as 
common  here  to  distinguish  between  men,  by  being  under  a  cove 
nant  of  grace  or  a  covenant  of  works,  as  in  other  countries  between 
Protestants  and  Papists." ' 

The  next  General  Court  furnished  occasion  for  new  ex 
citement.  The  speech  of  Wilson  at  the  previous  Court  was 
brought  under  question,  but  the  majority  passed  upon  it 
an  approval.  The  ministers  were  called  upon  for  advice 
as  to  the  authority  of  the  Court  in  things  concerning  the 
churches.  They  agreed  in  two  things :  (1)  That  without 
the  license  of  the  Court  a  church  could  not  call  any  man  in 
question  for  what  he  had  said  there ;  (2)  That  all  here 
sies  or  errors  of  a  church  member,  as  are  manifestly  dan 
gerous  to  the  State,  may  be  dealt  with  by  the  Court,  without 
waiting  for  the  church ;  but  that  doubtful  opinions  are  first 
to  be  dealt  with  by  the  church.  As  Mr.  Wheelwright  was 
to  be  proceeded  with  for  a  sermon  he  had  preached  on  the 
Fast  Day,  "  which  seemed  to  tend  to  sedition,"  nearly  all 
the  members  of  the  Boston  church  petitioned  the  Court 
that  as  freemen  they  might  attend  the  proceedings  as  a 
case  of  judicature,  and  that  the  Court  would  declare  its 
right  to  deal  with  cases  of  conscience  before  the  church. 
The  petition  was  pronounced  to  be  a  groundless  and  pre 
sumptuous  act,  and  it  was  answered  "  that  the  Court  was  al 
ways  open  in  judicial  cases,  but  chose  to  proceed  privately 
in  matters  of  consultation  and  preparation  of  causes."  One 
Stephen  Greensmith,  "for  saying  that  all  the  ministers  ex 
cept  A.  B.  C.  [Cotton,  Wheelwright,  and  Hooker]  did  teach  a 
covenant  of  works,  was  censured  to  acknowledge  his  fault 
in  every  church,  and  fined  <£40."  2  Cotton,  having  preached 
in  the  Boston  church  on  the  morning  of  the  Fast  Day, 
Wheelwright  preached  in  the  afternoon.  His  sermon,  which 
was  the  occasion  for  his  subsequent  banishment,  is  charac- 

1  Winthrop,  i.  124.  2  Records,  i.  214. 

21 


322  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

terized  by  Winthrop,  with  great  severity  and  sharp  censure, 
as  offensive,  vehement,  and  bitter  against  all  described  as 
"  walking  in  a  covenant  of  works,"  and  as  designed  to  stir 
up  the  people  against  them.  And  it  was  the  more  to  be 
complained  of  because  the  occasion  of  the  Fast  was  to  pro 
mote  reconciliation,  and  was  used  by  Wheelwright  to  kindle 
and  increase  differences.  In  no  one  of  the  documents  bear 
ing  upon  this  controversy  will  impartial  and  discerning 
readers  see  more  clearly  than  in  this,  tested  by  Winthrop's 
judgment  of  it,  the  evidence  of  the  morbid,  high-wrought 
and  inflammable  state  into  which  the  feelings  of  men  and 
women  had  been  stirred  by  this  distracting  strife,  largely 
on  unintelligible  matters.  Those  who  listened  so  testily  to 
the  preacher  must  have  heard  between  the  lines  and  sen 
tences,  interpolating  from  their  own  suspicions  and  fancies 
what  he  neither  uttered  nor  suggested.  The  sermon  seems 
to  us  earnest,  but  wholly  peaceful,  kindly,  and  harmless.1 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  neither  Mrs.  Hutchinson  nor  her 
brother-in-law  Wheelwright  ever  assumed  to  be  Antino- 
mians.  On  the  contrary,  he,  in  the  sermon  for  which  he 
was  dealt  with,  expressly  repudiated  the  name.  But  the 
magistrates  and  Court  interpreted  their  expressed  opinions 
as  involving  what  they  held  in  dread  as  such.  In  Europe 
the  sect  known  as  Antinomians  were  the  disciples  of  John 
Agricola,  a  tailor,  born  at  Eisleben  in  1492,  afterward  a 
university  scholar,  rector,  and  preacher,  and  in  1526  chap 
lain  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  at  the  diet  of  Spire.  As  a 
disciple  and  worker,  with,  and  afterward  an  opponent  of, 
Luther  and  Melanchthon,he  carried  to  extreme  the  doctrine 
of  the  former  of  justification  by  faith,  in  opposition  to  the 
Roman  Church  doctrine  of  good  works.  He  afterward  re 
nounced  his  errors.  Both  his  disciples  and  his  enemies 

1  From  a  copy  found  in  manuscript  in  the  State  House  it  has  been  thrice  put 
into  print.  See  a  volume  of  the  Prince  Society's  Publications,  Boston,  1876. 
The  sermon  expressly  warned  the  hearers  "to  have  care  that  we  give  not  others 
to  say  we  are  libertines  or  Antinomians." 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  323 

perverted  doctrines  which  he  had  carefully  and  guardedly 
defined.  So  Antinomianism  came  to  stand  for  —  what  the 
authorities  of  Massachusetts  held  it  to  be  —  a  grossly  im 
moral  doctrine ;  superseding  the  need  of  good  works,  and 
reaching  the  monstrous  conclusion  that  nothing  which  a 
believer  might  do  could  be  sin. 

After  much  debate  with  elders  and  others,  the  Court 
judged  Wheelwright  guilty  of  sedition  and  contempt.  Vane 
and  a  few  others,  dissenting,  tendered  a  protestation,  which 
the  Court  rejected.  The  Boston  church  sent  in  a  petition 
justifying  the  sermon.  Sentence  was  deferred  to  the  next 
Court,  and  the  ministers  were  consulted  as  to  whether 
Wheelwright  could  be  enjoined  to  silence  in  the  interval. 
As  they  were  in  doubt  on  this  point,  he  was  commended  to 
the  care  of  the  Boston  church. 

Though  the  first  Court  held  in  Boston  had  pronounced  it 
"  the  fittest  place  in  the  Bay  for  publique  meetings,"  an  ex 
ception  was  now  to  be  made.  The  town  and  its  church 
were  strongly  and  almost  unanimously  on  the  side  of  the 
man  who  was  to  undergo  sentence.  So,  after  much  con 
tention,  the  Court  was  appointed  to  be  held  at  Newtown 
(Cambridge).  Vane  refused  to  put  the  motion  for  this  to 
vote ;  Winthrop,  "  because  he  dwelt  in  Boston,"  hesitated 
to  do  so,  except  required  by  the  Court ;  so  Endicott  put  it. 
One  of  those  manifestations  of  feeling,  petulant,  or  con 
scientious,  as  we  may  regard  them  —  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  occurred  at  this  time.  Vane,  Cotton,  Wheel 
wright,  "  and  the  rest  of  the  Boston  church  that  were  of 
any  note,"  refused  to  attend  an  ordination  at  Concord,  be 
cause  they  accounted  the  candidates  for  office  to  be  "  legal 
preachers." 

Things  were  in  a  state  of  ferment,  of  jealousy,  passion, 
and  struggling  partisanship,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Court 
of  Elections,  at  Newtown,  May  17,  1637.  Vane  tried  to 
anticipate  the  regular  course  of  business  by  reading  a  peti 
tion  from  many  of  the  town  of  Boston.  This,  Winthrop, 


324  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

as  Deputy  Governor,  opposed,  as  clearly  out  of  order  and 
obstructive.  After  protracted  contention  and  uproar,  only 
stopping  short  of  personal  violence,  a  division  was  effected. 
The  meeting  was  on  a  warm  day,  held  out  of  doors.  Mr. 
Wilson  then  inaugurated  "  stump  speaking  "  at  an  election 
on  this  continent.  Seated  on  the  bough  of  a  tree,  he  ha 
rangued  the  people  on  the  proper  business  of  the  day  as 
provided  by  the  Charter.  The  majority  carried  it  for  the 
old  order  of  things,  electing  Winthrop  Governor,  Dudley 
Deputy,  with  their  former  associates  as  Assistants,  in  place 
of  Vane  and  his  friends,  Dummer,  Haugh,  and  Coddington. 
Boston  delayed  the  choice  of  its  deputies  till  this  result 
as  to  the  magistrates  was  reached,  and  the  next  morning 
elected  Yane,  Coddington,  and  Haugh,  to  the  inferior  office. 
The  Court  rejected  them  on  a  technicality,  but  they  were 
re-elected  and  then  received.  Some  piques  and  slights 
followed  this  upturning  in  official  places.  The  sergeants 
"  being  all  Boston  men,"  who  with  their  halberds  had  been 
wont,  with  a  form  of  state,  to  attend  Vane  to  and  from 
public  meetings,  "  never  less  than  four  of  them,"  in  respect 
to  his  being  "  a  person  of  quality,"  refused  to  perform  the 
same  service  for  Winthrop.  He  declined  the  proffer  of  the 
Court  to  furnish  others,  and  set  to  that  use  two  of  his  own 
servants.  Both  he  and  Vane  were  put  thus  into  relations 
very  exacting  upon  their  courtesy  and  magnanimity.  The 
elder  of  the  rivals  sustained  well  his  self-respect  and  dig 
nity.  Vane,  with  those  who  had  been  left  out  with  him, 
abandoned  their  wonted  seats  with  the  magistrates  in  the 
meeting-house,  and  sat  with  the  deacons ;  nor  when  so 
licited  by  Winthrop  to  do  so  would  Vane  resume  his  former 
seat.  A  flood  of  papers  now  came  forth  :  from  the  magis 
trates,  to  justify  their  course  against  Wheelwright ;  from 
him,  qualifying  or  explaining  passages  in  his  sermon ;  and 
from  the  ministers,  on  all  the  tangled  threads  of  the  con 
troversy.  Winthrop  says  that  "  Mr.  Cotton  reduced  mat 
ters  to  a  very  narrow  scantling,"  and  that  had  it  not  been 


THE    ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  325 

for  the  heat  of  former  alienations,  there  might  have  been 
reconciliation,  as  "  only  the  few  who  knew  the  bottom 
of  the  tenents  of  those  of  the  other  party,  could  see  where 
the  difference  was."  l  The  Court  deferred  sentence  against 
Wheelwright  till  its  next  session  in  August,  hoping  that 
the  effect  of  a  general  Fast  Day,  and  further  conferences 
with  the  ministers,  would  help  to  reduce  the  alarming  ex 
citement  of  the  community,  and  also  exhibit  the  moderation 
of  the  Court  when  so  provoked,  and  reconcile  matters. 

The  only  relieving  motive  which,  amid  the  abounding 
stores  of  interesting  and  instructive  matter  for  his  pe 
rusal,  can  sustain  the  patience  of  the  reader  of  our  time 
in  following  the  details  of  this  to  him  petty,  often  unintel 
ligible  and  wholly  profitless  dispute,  is  that  by  it  he  is 
helped  to  put  himself  into  more  or  less  sympathetic  rela 
tions*  with  those  who,  in  the  seclusion  and  limitations  of 
their  situation  and  experience,  could  thus  exalt  such  mat 
ters  of  contention  into  themes  of  supreme  and  transcendent 
importance.  One  of  the  results  and  fruits  of  the  steady 
progress  made  by  generations  in  advanced  and  liberalized 
views  is,  that  the  themes  opened  for  debate  and  discordance 
of  opinion  become  larger  and  of  more  serious  import.  And 
the  larger  the  theme,  the  more  serious  and  momentous  its 
import,  the  nobler  is  the  range  of  human  faculties  engaged 
upon  it,  while  the  vexing  and  inflammatory  passions  which 
stir  a  petty  strife  are  kept  in  check.  The  opponents  of 
Vane,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  Wheelwright  in  this  heated 
altercation  sought  to  conserve  their  fundamental  covenant 
in  the  terms  of  it  drawn  from  the  Bible.  But  the  perplexity 
was  that  the  so-called  Antinomians  raised  perfectly  fair 
questions  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Biblical  terms  of 
that  covenant.  The  Quakers  by  and  by  were  to  raise  an  issue 
which  subordinated  that  covenant.  The  Antinomians  took 
one  step  toward  liberalizing  it. 

But  a  fresh  matter  of  contention  now  came  in  to  engage  the 

1  Winthrop.  i.  221. 


326  *       THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

zeal  and  pen  of  Vane  during  the  short  remaining  period  of  his 
stay  in  the  country.  It  was  an  act  passed  by  the  Court  for 
the  protection  of  the  country  against  an  apprehended  trouble 
from  the  expected  coming  here  of  persons  of  weight  who 
might  favor  the  obnoxious  opinions.  This  act  forbade,  by  a 
heavy  pecuniary  penalty,  the  entertainment  by  any  resident 
of  any  stranger  for  more  than  three  months,  or  the  sale  of 
land  to  such,  without  permission  of  one  or  more  magistrates. 
This  order,  which  Winthrop  says  was  designed  to  keep  out 
persons  "  who  might  be  dangerous  to  the  Commonwealth," 
proved  very  obnoxious  to  most  of  the  people  of  Boston,  who 
treated  Winthrop  with  slights  on  his  return  to  the  town. 
Mr.  Cotton  was  so  aggrieved  by  the  order  as  to  meditate  a 
removal  to  New  Haven.  Winthrop  wrote  an  earnest  argu 
mentative  "  Defence  "  of  this  order,  which  presents  a  point  of 
great  interest  to  us.  With  evident  sincerity  and  earnest 
ness  of  conviction,  and  with  much  weight  as  coming  from 
the  foremost  promoter  of  the  Colony,  Winthrop  maintains 
that  the  Charter  conferred  exclusive  right  of  territory  on 
the  patentees,  and  a  power  such  as  a  householder  has,  of  re 
straining  from  entrance  in  his  domicile  of  any  unwelcome 
visitor.  Vane  wrote  an  "  Answer  "  to  this  "  Defence,"  and 
Winthrop  followed  with  a  "  Replication."  l 

A  Thanksgiving  Day  was  observed  for  a  victory  over  the 
Pequots.  Winthrop,  making  a  visit  to  Ipswich,  received 
guards  and  great  respect,  beyond  his  wishes,  through  all  the 
towns,  as  an  offset  to  the  slights  of  Boston.  Private  aliena 
tions  were  very  much  embittered.  There  was  then  in  Bos 
ton  Lord  Leigh,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Marlborough,  a  youth 
who  had  come  to  see  the  country.  Winthrop  invited  him 
and  Vane  to  dine  with  him  ;  but  Vane  declined,  "  alleging 
by  letter  that  his  conscience  withheld  him."  2 

Vane,  accompanied  by  Lord  Leigh,  sailed  for  England  on 
the  3d  of  August.  His  friends,  many  of  them  in  arms, 

1  The  three  papers  are  in  HutchiDson's  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  67-100. 

2  Winthrop,  i.  232. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  327 

honored  him  with  volleys  of  shot  and  salutes  from  the  ves 
sel  and  from  the  fort.  Winthrop  could  not  leave  the  Court, 
but  had  given  orders  for  this  honorable  dismission. 

The  historian  Hubbard,  who  should  have  known,  says 
that  the  Court  had  passed  an  order  that  henceforward  no 
man  should  be  qualified  for  the  place  of  governor  until 
he  had  been  at  least  one  year  in  the  country.  No  such 
entry  appears  on  the  records.  Whether  or  not  this  sting 
ing  arrow  was  shot  at  the  young  nobleman,  it  is  certain 
that  his  rejection,  even  as  a  magistrate,  must  have  satisfied 
him  that  while  he  had  a  large  circle  of  the  most  attached 
friends,  including  those  of  prominence  in  Boston,  the  min 
isters  and  the  majority  of  the  people  regarded  him  with 
great  disfavor,  and  held  him  chargeable  with  the  fierce  dis 
sensions,  the  estrangement  and  acrimony  of  feeling,  and 
more  than  all  for  the  threatenings  of  sedition  and  alarm 
ing  outbreaks  which  they  apprehended.  He  left  matters  in 
a  state  of  fearful  distraction.  The  two  ministers  of  his 
church  were  made  to  lead  two  angry  factions.  The  honored 
and  ever  true-hearted  Winthrop,  now  dependent  upon  his 
own  calm  of  spirit  in  meeting  the  coldness  and  misrepresen 
tations  of  those  to  whose  welfare  he  had  devoted  his  life, 
was  so  sorely  buffeted  that  his  equanimity  was  shaken,  to 
the  extent  of  a  possible  failure  of  judgment.  The  strife  was 
yet  to  rage,  with  new  elements  of  variance  and  bitterness. 
In  dismissing  Vane  from  any  further  direct  agency  in  it,  it 
is  most  just  to  him,  and  most  grateful  to  one  reviewing  this 
dissension,  to  be  able  to  add  that  he  took  home  with  him 
no  grudges,  no  personal  smarts.  He  had  done  good  ser 
vice  while  here,  in  aiding  the  younger  Winthrop's  business 
for  the  settlement  of  Connecticut,  as  agent  for  Lord  Say  and 
Sele  and  Lord  Brooke.  He  had  also  been  in  warm  sym 
pathy  with  Roger  Williams  in  his  views  of  what  ought  to 
be  the  relations  between  the  whites,  and  the  Indians.  He 
performed  many  kindly  offices,  and  was  ever  ready  to  ren 
der  helpful  service  to  Massachusetts  and  New  England 


328  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

when  he  had  influence  with  those  who  held  the  helm  of 
State.  Two  widely  different  estimates  of  his  character  and 
career,  with  its  tragic  close,  have  come  down  to  us  from 
those  writing  in  the  interest  of  parties.  To  some  he  repre 
sents  all  that  is  impracticable,  visionary,  and  revolutionizing 
in  the  wild  idealism  and  theorism  of  a  zealot  and  enthusiast 
in  religious  mysticism,  brought  to  bear  upon  affairs  of 
State.  To  others  he  presents  himself  as  one  of  the  noblest, 
wisest,  and  best  of  English  worthies,  in  the  purity  of  his 
purposes  and  the  consecration  of  his  wisdom  and  virtue  to 
the  highest  human  services.  It  is  by  that  estimate  of  him 
that  Milton  immortalized  him  in  his  grand  sonnet.  Vane 
distrusted  Cromwell,  and  openly  rebuked  him  for  his  ambi 
tion  for  the  kingship.  Cromwell,  in  return,  called  Vane  a 
"  juggler,"  and  Carlyle  adopts  the  epithet.  Clarendon  re 
garded  him  as  "  a  man  of  extraordinary  parts  ;  a  pleasant 
wit,  a  great  understanding,  which  pierced  into  and  discerned 
the  purpose  of  other  men  with  wonderful  sagacity,  whilst 
he  had  himself  vultum  clausum."  Dean  Swift,  in  terms 
characteristic  of  his  own  personality,  wrote  to  Burnet,  "  Vane 
was  a  dangerous  enthusiastic  beast."  Sir  James  Mackintosh 
says,  "  Vane  was  probably  the  first  who  laid  down  with  per 
fect  precision  the  inviolable  rights  of  conscience,  and  the  ex 
emption  of  religion  from  all  civil  authority."  Hallam  says, 
"  The  royalists  have  spoken  of  Vane  with  extreme  dislike ; 
yet  it  should  be  remembered  that  he  was  not  only  incorrupt 
but  disinterested,  inflexible  in  conforming  his  public  con 
duct  to  his  principles,  and  averse  to  every  sanguinary  and 
oppressive  measure."  Richard  Baxter  was  perplexed  and 
offended  by  the  element  of  mysticism  in  Vane,  and  coupling 
him  with  Sterry,  another  with  whom  he  was  at  variance, 
cast  a  gibe  at  both  of  them,  in  writing  of  their  principles 
as  "  Vanity  and  Sterility."  The  King  was  faithless  in  his 
royal  promise  to  save  Vane  from  execution,  as  his  father 
had  been  to  Straff ord.  The  sentence  that  Vane  should 
"  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  at  Tyburn,"  was  "  miti- 


THE   ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  329 

gated  "  to  beheading  on  Tower  Hill.  He  refused  the  proffer 
to  petition  for  his  life.  Vane's  wife  was  allowed  to  pass 
the  night  with  him  in  the  Tower  before  his  execution. 
With  a  view  to  possible  results,  he  required  that  an  attested 
record  of  the  fact  should  be  made  by  the  lieutenant  of  the 
Tower.  His  posthumous  son,  Sir  Christopher  Vane,  was 
sworn  of  the  Privy  Council,  under  James  II.,  Aug.  12, 
1688.  There  is  a  tinge  of  romance  in  the  connection  of 
such  a  man  as  Vane,  the  friend  of  Milton  and  Roger  Wil 
liams,  and  once  of  Cromwell,  with  our  early  days  of  Indian 
warfare  and  religious  contention.  His  portrait  should  hang 
in  our  State  House. 

We  return  to  the  scene  and  actors  of  the  strife  in 
Boston.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  continuing  her  women's 
meetings,  gathering  toward  her  jealousies  which  were  to 
manifest  themselves  after  the  case  of  her  brother-in-law 
had  been  disposed  of.  Though  he  was  under  censure  of 
the  Court,  sentence  had  been  deferred  pending  the  at 
tempts  at  conciliating  at  least  some  of  the  differences  by 
the  circulation  of  papers.  But  as  if  in  unconsciousness 
of  the  fact  that  the  ingredients  already  mingled  in  the 
strife  were  sufficient  to  overtask  the  shrewdest  and  most 
practical  skill  brought  to  deal  with  them,  the  leaders  of  the 
parties  rallied  new  contributors  to  it.  Hooker  and  Daven 
port  came  from  Connecticut  and  had  many  meetings  with 
the  elders,  and  it  was  agreed,  that  with  the  consent  of  the 
magistrates  there  should  be  a  conference  of  a  most  compre 
hensive  kind  on  the  30th  of  August.  This  was  preceded 
by  a  day  of  humiliation  on  the  24th.  Mr.  Davenport, 
from  a  text1  rebuking  those  who  cause  divisions,  after  the 
ingenious  fashion  of  so  many  of  the  clergy  in  all  time, 
preached  a  sermon  most  adroitly  adjusted  to  promote  the 
mischief  designed  to  be  averted.  So  in  the  Boston  church 
u  he  clearly  discovered  his  judgement  against  the  new 
opinions  and  bitter  practices  which  were  sprung  up  here."  2 

1  1  Corinthians,  i.  10.  2  Winthrop,  i.  236. 


330  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Cotton  then  took  his  turn,  expounding  the  occasions  on 
which  civil  rulers  might  consult  with  the  ministers  of  the 
churches. 

The  New  Town  (Cambridge),  where  the  earliest  meas 
ures  were  then  in  inception  for  the  planting  of  the  wilder 
ness  college,  has  been  the  witness  in  the  lapse  of  years 
of  many  occasions  engaging  thought  and  speech  upon  all 
subjects  concerning  the  highest  interests  of  humanity. 
But  we  may  feel  assured  that  none  of  these  occasions  has 
enlisted  a  profounder  earnestness  of  expectation,  a  more 
intensified  spirit  of  fervor  and  zeal,  nor  more  acute  and 
stimulating  exercises  of  mind  and  soul,  than  that  of  which 
we  are  now  to  write.  Not  convinced,  as  so  many  of  us  in 
these  times  are,  that  clerical  synods  have  been  among  the 
worst  pests  and  perils  of  Christendom,  through  all  the 
ages,  the  Court  had  provided  that  the  first  of  them  in 
the  long  list  of  those  that  have  since  been  held  on  this 
continent  should  be  convened  at  Newtown,  Aug.  30,  1637. 
Stimulated  to  fever  heat  were  all  the  passions  and  senti 
ments  that  were  to  be  engaged  in  it, — in  ministers,  dele 
gates,  or  "messingers"  from  the  churches,  and  magistrates. 
The  synod  was  to  be  composed  of  all  the  contestants  and 
parties  to  the  strife,  instead  of  having  any  of  the  character  of 
an  external  or  independent  tribunal  which  might  be  looked 
to  as  an  impartial  arbitrator.  The  diet  of  those  in  attend 
ance,  and  the  travelling  expenses  of  those  coming  from 
outside  the  Colony,  were  to  be  paid  from  the  public  treas 
ury.  "  There  were  all  the  teaching  elders  through  the 
country,  and  some  new  come  out  of  England,  not  yet  called 
to  any  place  here,  as  Mr.  Davenport,  etc."  1  Cotton,  as 
the  head  of  the  ministers,  had  he  not  been  so  prominent 
a  party,  would  naturally  have  been  the  moderator.  But 
Bulkeley  of  Concord  and  Hooker  of  Connecticut  shared 
that  honor.  After  prayer  by  the  pastor  of  Cambridge, 
Shepard,  the  assembly  listened  to  the  reading  of  a  most 

1  Winthrop,  i.  237. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  331 

extraordinary  paper,  signed  by  all  the  ministers  except 
Cotton.  This  was  a  gathering  up  and  an  attempted  classi 
fication  of  all  the  "  erroneous  opinions  spread  in  the  coun 
try,"  including  "  unwholesome  expressions,"  "  unsavory 
speeches,"  and  "  abused  Scriptures,"  or  texts  falsely  or 
wrongly  turned  to  arguments.  There  were  exactly  eighty- 
two  erroneous  opinions.  They  were  largely  "  inferences  " 
again,  constructions,  deductions,  glosses,  tasking  the  inge 
nuities  and  technicalities  of  speech  to  give  them  intelli 
gible  expression,  and  often  failing  of  that.  Well  is  it 
written,  "  with  the  heart  man  believeth."  There  could  have 
been  but  very  little  of  mind  in  most  of  those  propositions. 
That  noble,  but  much  abused  word,  "opinions,"  signifies  the 
fruits  of  thought,  the  results  of  thinking.  And  this  mean 
ing  the  word  ought  always  to  carry  with  it,  if  we  are  to 
listen  otherwise  than  contemptuously  to  the  common  plea 
that  "  every  man's  opinions  are  entitled  to  respect."  We 
cannot  yield  that  respect  to  notions  and  fancies  when  we 
know  that  they  involve  no  real  thought,  that  nothing  from 
the  working  brain  or  the  brooding  mind  has  gone  into 
them.  Opinions  are  to  be  formed,  not  taught  or  adopted. 
The  startling  inventory  read  before  the  synod  would  be 
as  unintelligible  to-day,  save  to  experts,  as  would  be  the 
formulation  of  a  process  in  modern  chemistry.  The  intent 
was  to  impute  the  responsibility  for  all  these  erroneous 
opinions,  unwholesome  expressions,  and  unsavory  speeches, 
to  the  party  of  Cotton,  Wheelwright,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 
Cotton  was  willing  to  bear  testimony  against  most  of  them 
as  heretical  and  absurd,  while  some  of  them  were  blasphe 
mous  ;  but  he  would  not  condemn  them  all.  Every  one 
in  the  synod,  lay  or  clerical,  had  free  speech  in  debating 
the  propositions  through  three  weeks.  This  statement, 
however,  must  be  qualified.  Some  in  attendance  from  the 
Boston  church  were  irritated  and  scandalized  at  having 
such  a  travesty  of  heresies,  crotchets,  and  absurdities  as 
cribed  to  them,  and  protested  that  the  publication  of  them 


332  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

would  bring  a  reproach  on  the  whole  country.  They  in 
sisted  therefore  that  the  names  of  persons  chargeable  with 
such  notions  should  be  given.  This  the  synod  would  not 
consent  to,  alleging  that  it  was  dealing  with  "heresies," 
not  with  persons.  To  their  over-urgency  with  protests 
they  received  a  hint  that  they  would  be  withheld  by  the 
magistrate,  lest  they  should  provoke  a  civil  disturbance. 
Some  of  these  Boston  protesters  then  left  the  synod  and 
never  returned  to  it. 

The  opinions,  so  called,  were  discussed,  then  papers  and 
arguments  were  prepared  on  both  sides,  with  attempts  to 
simplify  and  clear  up.  This  met  with  partial  success. 
The  result,  approved  by  a  large  majority,  to  which  some 
assented,  without  subscribing,  was  a  condemnation  of  the 
new  "  opinions."  The  last  day  of  the  three  weeks'  session 
was  given  to  some  other  debating.  With  an  eye  to  what 
was  going  on  vigorously  in  Boston,  under  the  lead  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  the  following  proposition  was  agreed  upon : 

"  That  though  women  might  meet  (some  few  together)  to  pray 
and  edify  one  another,  yet  such  a  set  assembly  (as  was  then  in 
practise  at  Boston)  where  sixty  or  more  did  meet  every  week,  and 
one  woman  (in  a  prophetical  way,  by  resolving  questions  of  doc 
trine,  and  expounding  Scripture)  took  upon  her  the  whole  exercise, 
was  agreed  to  be  disorderly  and  without  rule."  * 

Restraint  was  also  put  upon  the  freedom  of  speech  and 
questioning  by  persons  after  sermon.  The  magistrates' 
help  might  be  engaged  to  compel  the  attendance  of  one 
under  church  censure  who  would  not  present  himself  to 
meet  it,  —  another  illustration  of  the  steady  advance  in 
identifying  civil  and  religious  administration.  A  fourth 
conclusion  was,  that  a  member  differing  from  the  rest  of 
the  church  on  "  an  opinion  not  fundamental,"  ought  not  for 
that  reason  to  forsake  the  ordinances  there ;  "  and  if  such 
did  desire  dismission  to  any  other  church,  which  was  of  his 

1  Winthrop,  i.  240. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  333 

opinion,  and  did  it  for  that  end,  the  church  whereof  he  was 
ought  to  deny  it  for  the  same  end."  The  increasing  indi 
viduality  and  eccentricity  of  opinion  was  not,  however,  to 
be  withstood  by  thus  restraining  the  liberty  of  choice  in 
seeking  more  congenial  fellowship  and  ministrations.  The 
individual  would  be  likely  to  regard  his  special  opinion  as 
"fundamental"  to  him.  These  multiplying  annoyances 
and  variances  incident  to  the  attempt  to  bring  into  forced 
accord  those  whose  "  tender  consciences  "  and  busy  wits 
were  inventing  scruples  arid  notions,  were  sure  to  increase 
under  the  activity  of  church  discipline.  It  is,  however,  to 
be  kept  in  mind  that  each  member  when  entering  into  fel 
lowship  pledged  himself  to  come  under  "  the  watch  and 
ward"  of  the  church.  This  obligation  was  indefinable  as 
to  its  extent  and  range.1 

.  Governor  Winthrop  was  so  relieved  and  gratified  by  the 
general  temper  and  conclusion  of  this  assembly,  "  all  in 
love,"  that  he  yielded  to  one  of  those  occasional  failures 
of  discretion,  —  not  frequent  with  him, —  and  "  propounded 
if  it  were  not  fit  to  have  the  like  meeting  once  a  year,  or 
at  least  the  next  year,  to  settle  what  yet  remained  to  be 
agreed,  or  if  but  to  nourish  love."  He  adds,  "  This  motion 
was  well  liked  of  all,  but  it  was  not  thought  fit  to  conclude 
it."  A  fortunate  decision.  To  the  credit  of  the  ministers 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  they  objected  to  any  measures  being 
adopted  by  the  assembly  for  providing  a  method  for  their 
maintenance  "  agreeable  to  the  rule  of  the  Gospel."  They 
would  avoid  the  imputation  of  using  the  assembly  for  their 
own  advantage.  Mr.  Davenport  closed  the  synod  with  a 
discourse  in  which  he  prepared  the  way  for  more  divisions 
by  preaching  against  them.  A  Thanksgiving  Day  was  kept 
on  the  12th  of  October  for  victories  over  the  Pequots,  and 
"  for  the  success  of  the  assembly ;  but  by  reason  of  this 
latter  some  of  Boston  would  not  be  present  at  the  publick 
exercises."  2 

1  Winthrop,  i.  243.  2  Ibid. 


334  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

We  are  well  prepared  to  find  Winthrop  acknowledging 
his  disappointment  when  it  proved  that  the  action  of  the 
assembly,  so  far  from  pacifying  the  strife,  was  followed 
by  further  contention.  He  had  thought  that  Wheelwright 
and  his  party  had  been  clearly  confuted  and  confounded ; 
but  they  were  by  no  means  of  that  mind  themselves,  and 
showed  their  discontent  by  renewed  activity.  The  General 
Court,  meeting  on  the  2d  of  November,  1637,  availed  itself 
of  what  Winthrop  calls  an  "  opportunity."  Whether  the 
device  adopted  ought  not  to  be  denned  by  a  very  different 
term,  let  the  reader  judge.  It  will  be  remembered  that  at 
a  Court  held  on  the  9th  of  March,  eight  months  previous,  a 
remonstrance  or  petition  had  been  offered  by  some  of  Bos 
ton,  in  earnest  behalf  of  Wheelwright  and  in  indirect  cen 
sure  of  the  Court.  No  notice  was  at  the  time  taken  of  this 
remonstrance,  and  it  was  passed  over  in  subsequent  sessions 
in  May  and  August.  But  this  Court  determined,  on  con 
sultation,  to  make  it  available  for  a  purpose  which  Win 
throp  thus  states :  — 

"  The  Court  finding  that  two  so  opposite  parties  could  not  con 
tain  in  the  same  body,  without  apparent  hazard  of  ruin  to  the 
whole,  agreed  to  send  away  some  of  the  principal."  1 

There  were  more  than  sixty  signers  to  the  remonstrance. 
One  of  these,  William  Aspinwall,  was  a  deputy  to  the 
Court  from  Boston.  On  suspicion  —  which  proved  to  have 
reason  —  that  he  had  drawn  the  paper,  he  was  dismissed 
from  the  Court,  then  called  again  to  be  disfranchised  and 
banished.  The  same  disposal  was  made  of  John  Cogge- 
shall,  another  Boston  deputy,  who,  though  he  had  not 
signed,  yet  said  he  approved  the  petition.  The  indignant 
constituency  of  Boston  proposed  to  send  them  back  to  the 
Court  again,  but  Cotton  dissuaded  them.  Yet  the  town 
found  such  difficulty  in  selecting  such  deputies  as  it  ap 
proved,  while  unacceptable  to  the  Court,  as  to  leave  the 

Winthrop,  i.  245. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  335 

places  vacant  during  the  session.  Wheelwright  was  then 
summoned.  He  refused  to  yield  either  "his  opinions,  his 
place,  or  his  public  exercisings."  He  was  disfranchised 
and  banished,  his  appeal  to  the  King  being  denied.  He 
was  allowed  to  go  to  his  house  on  his  promise  that  if  he 
were  not  gone  out  of  the  jurisdiction  in  fourteen  days  he 
would  yield  himself  to  one  of  the  magistrates.1 
The  terms  of  the  sentence  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  Mr.  John  Wheelwright,  being  formerly  convicted  of  contempt 
and  sedition,  and  now  justifying  himselfe  and  his  former  practice, 
being  to  the  disturbance  of  the  civill  peace,  hee  is  by  the  Court 
disfranchised  and  banished,  having  14  days  to  settle  his  affairs; 
and  if  within  that  time  hee  depart  not  the  patent,  he  promiseth 
to  render  himself  to  Mr.  Stoughton,  at  his  house  to  bee  kept  till 
hee  bee  disposed  of."  2 

Before  quoting  from  the  Records  the  disposal  made  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  we  may  read  Winthrop's  account  of  her 
arraignment :  — 

"The  Court  also  sent  for  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  charged  her 
with  divers  matters,  as  her  keeping  two  public  lectures  every  week 
in  her  house,  whereto  sixty  or  eighty  persons  did  usually  resort, 
and  for  reproaching  most  of  the  ministers  (viz.,  all  except  Mr.  Cot 
ton)  for  not  preaching  a  covenant  of  free  grace,  and  that  they  had 
not  the  seal  of  the  Spirit,  nor  were  able  ministers  of  the  New  Tes 
tament  :  which  were  clearly  proven  against  her,  though  she  sought 
to  shift  it  off.  And  after  many  speeches  to  and  fro,  at  last  she 

1  Winthrop,  i.  246. 

2  Records,  i.  207.    Mr.  Doyle  —  "The  English  in  America"  (Puritan  Colo 
nies),  i.  180  — pertinently  remarks  upon  the  new  elements  which  excitement  and 
agitation  had  introduced  in  the  original  matter  of  the  controversy,  "that  the 
attitude  of  Wheelwright  and  his  associates  was  not  precisely  what  it  had  been 
at  the  outset.     It  is  clear  that  both  he  and  his  sister  were  among  those  to 
whom  strife  was  a  delight.     A  combative  temper,  the  need  for  satisfying  that 
love  of  novelty  which  they  had  themselves  done  so  much  to  create,  and  that 
spirit  of  aggressive  opposition  which  even  the  semblance  of  persecution  begets 
in  original  and  self-reliant  minds,  all  prompted  them  to  extend  their  differ 
ences  from  the  established  creed." 


336  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

was  so  full  as  she  could  not  contain,  but  vented  her  revelations : 
amongst  which  this  was  one,  —  that  she  had  it  revealed  to  her  that 
she  should  come  into  New  England,  and  should  here  be  persecuted, 
and  that  God  would  ruin  us  and  our  posterity,  and  the  whole  State, 
for  the  same.  So  the  Court  proceeded  and  banished  her  ;  but,  be 
cause  it  was  winter,  they  committed  her  to  a  private  house,  where 
she  was  well  provided,  and  her  own  friends  and  the  elders  per 
mitted  to  go  to  her,  but  none  else." ] 

This  private  house  was  that  of  Mr.  Joseph  Welde  in  Rox- 
bury,  brother  of  the  elder,  one  of  the  bitterest  opponents 
of  Mrs.  Hutcliinson.  Her  "  revelations,"  private  special 
illuminations,  which  she  claimed  were  made  to  her  by  the 
Spirit,  were  the  dynamite  missiles  of  those  times  which 
struck  shocks  of  indignation  and  dread  in  those  who  re 
stricted  all  communications  between  God  and  men  to  the 
Bible.  But  it  needed  no  special  revelations  to  forebode  the 
ruin  likely  to  befall  the  wilderness  colony  in  its  first  score 
of  years  if  these  distractions  were  not  quieted. 

A  report  of  this  trial,  covering  forty  pages,  from  an  un 
known  hand,  enables  us  to  follow  its  course,  and  to  catch 
its  salient  points.2  Winthrop  presided,  and  put  most  of  the 
questions  and  charges.  His  position,  office,  and  duty  were 
most  trying  to  him.  We  have  to  fall  back  upon  our  pro 
found  impressions  of  the  deep  sincerity  and  integrity  of  his 
character,  his  singleness  and  devotion  of  purpose,  and  the 
consecration  of  his  fortune  and  life  to  a  beloved  work 
which  he  saw  threatened  with  a  dire  and  humiliating  catas 
trophe,  to  read  without  some  faltering  or  misgiving  of  ap 
proval,  not  to  say  with  regret  and  reproach,  the  method 
with  which  he  conducted  the  examination  of  this  gifted 
and  troublesome  woman.  Her  weapon  was  a  censorious 
tongue  ;  her  defensive  armor  was  a  consciousness  of  a  pure 
and  sanctified  heart.  Impartiality,  if  it  involved  any  degree 
of  tolerance  and  sympathy,  was,  under  the  circumstances, 

1  Winthrop,  i.  247. 

2  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  ii.  Appendix. 


THE    ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  337 

impossible.  For  three  years  Winthrop  had  seen  his  social 
and  church  fellowship  with  once  loving  and  trusting  friends 
riven  by  alienation,  by  asperity,  and  by  uncharitableness  of 
judgment.  His  official  duties  had  been  embarrassed  by  hos 
tile  partisanship.  A  youthful  rival  for  the  confidence  and 
honors  of  the  people,  after  a  short  residence  here,  had  left 
open  many  bleeding  wounds  and  inflamed  much  angry 
passion.  And,  above  all,  the  strife  which  was  raging  was 
mainly  concerned  with  unintelligible  propositions,  used  to 
furnish  catchwords  of  jealousy,  disparagement,  and  offen 
sive  comparisons  utterly  unedifying  as  concerning  their 
religious  guides.  Winthrop  seriously  and  earnestly,  but 
without  heat,  charged  Mrs.  Hutchirison  with  the  matters 
of  offence  already  stated,  as  promoting  strife  and  factions, 
and  as  being  the  prime  cause  and  agent  in  their  grievous 
troubles.  To  her  request  for  some  specific  accusation, 
Winthrop  reiterated  his  charges.  After  the  Puritan  fash 
ion  in  quoting  Scripture,  he  used  her  transgression  against 
the  civil  law  in  entertaining  strangers,  as  a  breach  of  the 
commandment  to  honor  parents.  She  had  also  counte 
nanced  Wheelwright  for  his  sermon,  and  the  signers  of 
the  remonstrance.  Winthrop,  abashed  in  his  dignity,  or 
parting  with  his  courtesy,  said,  "  We  do  not  mean  to  dis 
course  with  those  of  your  sex."  To  the  complaint  against 
her  for  holding  women's  meetings,  she  quoted  "  a  clear 
rule  in  Titus,  that  the  elder  women  should  instruct  the 
younger."  To  the  question  of  the  Governor,  whether  if 
a  hundred  men  should  come  to  her  for  instruction  she 
should  impart  it,  she  said  she  should  not ;  and  when  the 
question  was  varied,  she  said  she  would  instruct  any  one 
man  coming  for  the  purpose.  She  naively  asked,  "  Do 
you  think  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  teach  women,  and  wh] 
do  you  call  me  to  teach  the  Court  ?  "  The  Governor  told 
her  that  her  rule  from  Titus  meant  that  "  elder  women 
should  instruct  the  younger  about  their  business,  and  to 
love  their  husbands."  She  thought  the  duty  included 

22 


338  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

more ;  and  then  the  Governor  reminded  her  of  the  divis 
ions,  dissensions,  and  distraction  caused  by  her  meetings. 
She  still  insisted  to  know  what  "  rule  from  God's  word  " 
forbade  her.  Winthrop  replied,  "  We  are  your  judges,  and 
not  you  ours,  and  we  must  compel  you  to  it."  The  Deputy 
Governor,  Dudley,  here  interposed,  reviewing  the  dissen 
sions  of  the  last  three  years,  all  of  which  he  charged  upon 
her  and  Vane;  also  that  she  had  implicated  Mr.  Cotton, 
"  who  hath  cleared  himself  that  he  was  not  of  that  mind." 
Bradstreet  and  Endicott  put  in  questions,  but  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson  kept  her  self-command  and  answered  with  discretion. 
Hugh  Peter  then  spoke  at  length,  stating  that  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's  fellow-passengers  had  suspicions  of  her  opinions, 
and  that  when  it  was  bruited  that  she  drew  invidious  com 
parisons  between  ministers,  he  with  some  others  who  felt 
aggrieved  called  her  to  account ;  and  after  some  debate, 
"  tender  at  the  first,"  had  drawn  from  her  the  plain  avowal 
of  "  a  broad  difference  between  our  brother  Mr.  Cotton  and 
ourselves."  The  "inferences"  they  forced  upon  her. were 
that  the  others  were  not  able  ministers,  and  u  had  not  the 
seal  of  the  Spirit." 

Six  other  ministers  testified  plainly  that  in  interviews 
with  them  she  had  drawn  the  same  invidious  distinction 
between  them  and  Cotton.  She  replied  that  they  had  got 
this  frank  opinion  from  her  "  in  a  way  of  friendship," 
which  was  afterward,  not  with  her  intent,  used  in  reproach 
publicly.  Some  discussion  followed  about  Scriptural  texts. 
On  the  next  day  Winthrop  began  by  reviewing  the  yester 
day's  proceedings.  The  Court  declined  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
request  that  the  witnesses  be  put  under  oath,  and  there 
was  much  debating  upon  it.  Mr.  Cotton  was  called  in  and 
put  in  a  very  embarrassing  position  by  having  to  admit 
that,  to  his  own  regret,  she  had  drawn  the  unfavorable 
distinction  between  himself  and  the  other  ministers.  The 
discussion  soon  reached  the  matter  of  "  revelations,"  and 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  understood  as  saying  that  she  had 


THE   ANTINOMTAN   CONTROVERSY.  339 

assurance  that  God  would  relieve  her  of  all  trouble.  Win- 
throp  caught  at  this  as  proving  her  "  desperate  enthu 
siasm."  Cotton  was  drawn  into  sharp  altercation  by 
endeavoring  to  define  two  kinds  of  "  revelations."  Win- 
throp  in  his  impatience  parted  with  judicial  impartiality, 
and  pressed  for  sentence.  Two  of  the  Court  opposed  it, 
and  one  more  refused  to  vote.  Winthrop  put  the  question 
"  whether  it  was  the  mind  of  the  Court  that,  for  the  trouble- 
someness  of  her  spirit,  and  the  danger  of  her  course,"  she 
should  be  banished,  and  until  she  could  be  sent  away,  be 
imprisoned  ?  Mr.  Jennison,  deputy  from  Ipswich,  declined 
to  vote  either  way,  offering  to  give  his  reasons  if  desired. 
Mr.  Coddington,  magistrate,  and  Mr.  Colburn,  deputy  of 
Boston,  opposed  the  motion.  All  the  other  members  of 
the  Court  approved. 

The  sentence  is  recorded  as  follows :  — 

"  Mrs.  Hutchinson  (the  wife  of  Mr.  William  Hutchinson),  being 
convented  for  traduceing  the  ministers  and  their  ministery  in  this 
country,  shee  declared  volentarily  her  revelations  for  her  ground, 
and  that  shee  should  bee  delivred  and  the  Court  ruined,  with 
their  posterity,  and  thereupon  was  banished,  and  the  meane  while 
was  committed  to  Mr.  Joseph  Weld  untill  the  Court  shall  dispose 
of  her."  l 

Those  who  had  shown  their  approval  of  this  prime 
offender,  and  were  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  her  as 
manifested  by  having  their  names  on  the  Remonstrance, 
were  visited  with  various  penalties.  Ten  of  the  signers 
apologized  for  the  act,  and  wished  to  have  their  names 
erased.  There  must  have  been  lively  work  in  the  Court, 
as  the  resolute  or  the  timid  one  by  one  were  called  for 
judgment. 

There  have  been  differences  of  opinion  expressed  upon 
the  manifesto  issued  by  the  Court  in  justification  of  these 
and  of  its  subsequent  proceedings.  The  issue  is  whether 

1  Records,  i.  207. 


340  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

the  apprehension  it  avowed  of  a  threatened  insurrection 
and  resistance  of  the  government  was  sincere,  with  rea 
sons  that  operated  as  warnings,  or  a  mere  pretence  to  avert 
charges  of  tyrannical  severity. 

The  substance  of  the  manifesto  and  order  is  as  follows : 

"  Whereas  the  opinions  and  revelations  of  Mr.  Wheelwright 
and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  have  seduced  and  led  into  dangerous  errors 
many  of  the  people  heare  in  New  England,  insomuch  as  there  is 
just  cause  of  suspition  that  they,  as  others  in  Germany,  in  former 
times,  may,  upon  some  revelation,  make  some  suddaine  irruption 
upon  those  that  differ  from  them  in  judgement  — " 

the  Court  proceeded  to  add  an  order  that  certain  persons 
named,  should  on  penalties  for  delay  or  refusal,  before  the 
30th  of  the  month  (November,  1637),  give  up  all  their 
arms  and  ammunition  of  every  kind,  to  those  designated 
for  receiving  them.  Of  those  named,  fifty-eight  were  of 
Boston,  including  some  of  its  best  and  most  trusted  citi 
zens.  This  is  true  also  of  citizens  of  other  towns, — five 
of  Salem,  three  of  Newbury,  five  of  Roxbury,  two  of 
Ipswich,  and  two  of  Charlestown,  —  who  were  to  be  dis 
armed.  Such  of  these  as  would  "  acknowledge  their  shin 
in  subscribing  '  the  seditious  libel,'  or  do  not  justify  it," 
were  to  be  exempt  from  the  order.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was 
to  be  kept  in  charge  at  Roxbury,  at  the  expense  of  her 
husband. 

Winthrop  makes  note  of  an  incident  occurring  at  this 
time  to  which  reference  is  to  be  made  as  illustrating  the 
fact  that  he,  as  a  magistrate,  chose  to  remind  the  church 
that  he  was  not  amenable  to  its  discipline  for  some  things 
done  by  him  in  that  capacity.  He  had  prepared  and  sent 
to  England  for  publication  an  account  of  the  proceedings 
in  the  Court  with  observations  upon  them,  "  to  the  end 
that  our  godly  friends  might  not  be  discouraged  from 
coming  to  us."  1  Many  of  the  Boston  church  took  offence 

1  Winthrop,  i.  249. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  341 

at  this,  and  prompted  the  elders  to  call  him  to  account 
for  it.  Coming  to  the  knowledge  of  this,  and  wishing  to 
avert  the  disorder  that  might  follow  by  addressing  it  to 
the  congregation,  lie  anticipated  it  and  prevented  it.  His 
plea  was  a  Scriptural  one,  and  he  quoted  the  authority 
of  Christ  for  the  independence  of  the  civil  power.  The 
examples  of  Uzziah,  Asa,  Salam.  Abiathar,  Lot,  Hagar, 
and  Ishmael  come  in  to  illustrate  parts  of  his  argument. 
None  the  less  the  churches  had  their  duties  yet  to  perform 
to  those  who  as  under  their  "  watch  and  ward  "  had  been 
proceeded  against  by  the  civil  power.  After  "  admoni 
tions  "  pronounced  in  vain,  the  Roxbury  church  cast  out 
diverse  of  its  members.  "  In  their  dealing  with  them, 
they  took  some  of  them  in  plain  lies  and  other  foul 
distempers."  1 

The  whole  community  had  been  wrought  up  into  a  fever 
of  restlessness,  anxiety,  murmuring,  readiness  to  listen  to 
all  idle  rumors  and  suspicions,  which  court  and  church 
tried  in  various  ways  to  restrain  and  quiet.  The  Court 
passed  an  order  for  severe  penalties  against  all  who  should 
question  or  contemn  any  of  its  proceedings  or  sentences: 
it  attempted  to  secure  dignity  and  accountability  in  the 
behavior  and  speech  of  the  magistrates,  and  saved  the 
privilege  of  petition  as  of  free  use  "  in  any  way  of  God." 
In  the  Boston  church  some  wasted  their  time  and  zeal 
in  ferreting  out  from  the  by-currents  of  privacy  all  secret 
opinions  and  extravagances,  and  magistrates  and  elders 
spent  two  days  over  these  trivialities.  The  only  one 
among  them  intelligible  to  us  is  "that  there  is  no  resur 
rection  of  the  body."  From  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  denial  of 
a  corporeal  resurrection  it  seems  to  have  been  inferred  that 
this  supreme  idealist  was  a  materialist.  Her  real  opinion 
was  "  that  the  souls  of  men  are  mortal  by  generation,  but 
are  afterwards  made  immortal  by  Christ's  purchase."  Mr. 
Cotton  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  affirm  that  he 

1  Winthrop,  i.  250. 


342  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

had  been  abused  and  made  a  "  stalking  horse "  by  the 
heretics,  in  being  quoted  as  holding  some  of  their  notions 
which  he  abhorred.  Meanwhile  Mrs.  Hutchinson  at  Rox- 
bury  was  daily  beset  by  elders  and  others  in  efforts  to 
convince  or  to  convict  her.  It  is  a  marvel  that  she  re 
tained  her  reason  under  these  rasping  afflictions.  They 
found  her  still  to  hold  some  thirty  "  gross  errours."  Fif 
teen  of  these  were  put  into  shape  and  sent  to  Boston 
church,  as  matter  for  dealing  with  her  after  a  lecture  in 
March,  163f 

The  governor  and  treasurer,  being  members,  were  al 
lowed  to  leave  the  Court  at  Newtown,  that  they  might 
attend  the  church  meeting.  The  "errours"  being  read  to 
her,  after  standing  for  them  a  while,  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
appeared  to  yield,  as  if  "  convinced  by  reason  and  scrip 
ture."  She  was  then  plied  with  three  more  errors,  but 
she  would  not  admit  the  opinions  to  be  such.  With  but 
two  dissidents,  and  these  her  own  sons,  the  church  voted 
that  she  should  be  admonished,  "  and  because  her  sons 
would  not  agree  to  it,  they  were  admonished  also."  This 
distressing  church  session  was  prolonged  till  eight  at  night, 
when  "  Mr.  Cotton  pronounced  the  sentence  of  admonition 
"svith  great  solemnity,  and  with  much  zeal  and  detestation 
of  her  errours  and  pride  of  spirit."  "The  special  presence 
of  God's  spirit "  was  felt  in  the  assembly,  and  the  harassed 
woman  had  a  respite  till  "  the  next  lecture  day." 4  Some 
"  chief  military  officers,  who  had  declared  themselves  fa 
vorers  of  the  familistical  persons  and  opinions,"  being 
sent  for,  acknowledged  that  "  the  opinions  and  practice 
tended  to  disturbance  and  delusions,"  and  thanked  God 
for  their  deliverance.  In  the  interval  before  her  second 
appearance  before  the  church,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  having 
"  given  hope  of  her  repentance,"  had  been  permitted  by 
the  Court  to  make  her  home  with  Mr.  Cotton,  in  order 
that  he  and  his  guest,  Mr.  Davenport,  "  might  have  the 

1  Winthrop,  i.  256. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  343 

more  opportunity  to  deal  with  her."  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
thus  among  personal  friends,  perhaps  partial  sympathizers, 
sharing  kindly  hospitality,  and  in  incessant  talking  upon 
subjects  made  of  lively  interest  to  all  parties,  the  troubled 
spirit  of  the  woman  found  some  repose.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  church,  March  22,  163 -J,  - 

"  the  articles  being  again  read  to  her,  and  her  answer  required, 
she  delivered  it  in  writing,  wherein  she  made  a  retractation  of 
near  all,  but  with  such  explanations  and  circumstances  as  gave  no 
satisfaction  to  the  church ;  so  as  she  was  required  to  speak  further 
to  them.  Then  she  declared  that  it  was  just  with  God  to  leave 
her  to  herself  as  he  had  done,  for  her  slighting  his  ordinances,  both 
magistracy  and  ministry ;  and  confessed  that  what  she  had  spoken 
against  the  magistrates  at  the  court  (by  way  of  revelation)  was 
rash  and  ungrounded,  and  desired  the  church  to  pray  for  her. 
This  gave  the  church  good  hope  of  her  repentance ;  but  when  she 
was  examined  about  some  particulars,  as  that  she  had  denied  in 
herent  righteousness,  etc.,  she  affirmed  that  it  was  never  her 
judgement;  and  though  it  was  proved  by  many  testimonies  that 
she  had  been  of  that  judgement,  and  so  had  persisted,  and  main 
tained  it  by  arguments  against  divers,  yet  she  impudently  persisted 
in  her  affirmation,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  the  assembly.  So 
that  after  much  time  and  many  arguments  had  been  spent,  to  bring 
her  to  see  her  sin,  but  all  in  vain,  the  church,  with  one  consent, 
cast  her  out.  Some  moved  to  have  her  admonished  once  more  ; 
but  it  being  for  manifest  evil  in  matter  of  conversation,  it  was 
agreed  otherwise ;  and  for  that  reason  also  the  sentence  was  de 
nounced  by  the  pastor  [Wilson],  matter  of  manners  belonging 
properly  to  his  place."  * 

I  have  copied  the  foregoing  paragraph  from  the  Journal 
of  the  Governor,  who  was  present  at  both  the  examinations 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  before  the  church  after  the  Thursday 
Lecture.  His  record  prompts  many  suggestions.  It  closes 
iiis  account  of  a  controversy  which  had  been  in  progress 
for  three  years,  steadily  becoming  more  embarrassed  and 

1  Wintfirop,  i.  257,  258. 


344  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

obscure  in  the  propositions  of  opinion  and  doctrine  which 
it  involved,  and  with  increasing  bitterness  in  its  alienations 
and  heats  of  spirit.  We  must  take  in  connection  with 
Winthrop's  statement  the  following  entry  on  the  ancient 
records  of  the  First  (then  the  only)  Church  of  Boston : 

"The  22d  of  the  1st  Month  [March],  1638,  Anne,  the  wife  of 
our  brother,  William  Hutchinson,  having  on  the  15th  of  this 
month  been  openly,  in  the  public  congregation,  admonished  of 
sundry  errors  held  by  her,  was  on  the  same  22d  day  cast  out  of 
the  church  for  impenitently  persisting  in  a  manifest  lie  then  ex 
pressed  by  her  in  open  congregation." 

I  cannot  believe  either  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  guilty 
of  "  a  manifest  lie,"  or  that  Winthrop  and  the  church 
would  have  attributed*  to  her  the  heinous  offence  because 
of  prejudice  or  opposing  judgment.  Nor  need  one  look 
beyond  the  obscurity  and  intricacy  of  the  terms  used  in 
the  statement  of  equally  obscure  and  'intricate  propositions 
of  doctrinal  beliefs,  to  find  a  reconciling  medium  for  the 
integrity  of  both  parties.  Undoubtedly  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
became  inextricably  involved  in  the  maze  and  labyrinth 
of  the  utterly  unprofitable  strife,  and  was  open  to  mis 
apprehension  and  misrepresentation  by  others  who  could 
not  follow  her  abstractions  and  qualifications.  She  had 
made  courteous  and  womanly  apologies  for  any  failures 
of  social  etiquette  or  respect  for  magistrates.  But  she 
had  persuasions,  deeply  cherished  sentiments,  opinions, 
and  beliefs  which,  though  they  might  not  signify  the  same 
to  her  and  to  others,  whose  interpretation  and  inferences 
from  them  as  false  or  mischievous  she  could  not  accept, 
she  could  not  and  would  not  renounce. 

But  how,  we  may  ask,  had  it  come  about  that,  while 
three  years,  and  even  less  than  two  years  before,  she  had 
carried  with  her  in  sympathy  and  support  all  but  half-a- 
dozen  members  of  the  Boston  church,  its  sentence  now 
should  be  a  unanimous  one  against  her  ?  Three  reasons 


THE   ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  345 

for  this  offer  themselves.  The  firmest,  warmest,  and  most 
influential  of  her  friends  had  no  part  in  these  proceedings, 
and  were  not  present  at  them.  Some  had  been  banished, 
or  had  gone  away,  or  yielded  to  their  feelings  and  would 
not  attend.  Again,  some  really  stood  in  fear  of  the  pen 
alties  of  the  Court,  —  of  banishment  and  separation  from 
their  families,  which  their  friends  had  already  suffered. 
And  once  more,  a  real  alarm  was  working  in  the  panic- 
stricken  community,  of  a  complete  disruption  of  all  peace 
and  order  as  likely  to  result  from  some  of  the  "  infer 
ences,"  which  they  had  come  to  understand  as  rightfully 
drawn  from  Antinomian  doctrines  and  practices.  A  fur 
ther  word  from  Winthrop  adds  an  explanation :  - 

"  After  she  was  excommunicated,  her  spirits,  which  seemed  be 
fore  to  be  somewhat  dejected,  revived  again,  and  she  gloried  in 
her  sufferings,  saying  that  it  was  the  greatest  happiness,  next  to 
Christ,  that  ever  befel  her.  Indeed,  it  was  a  happy  day  to  the 
churches  of  Christ  here,  and  to  many  poor  souls  who  had  been 
seduced  by  her,  who,  by  what  they  heard  and  saw  that  day,  were 
(through  the  grace  of  God)  brought  off  quite  from  her  errours, 
and  settled  again  in  the  truth."  l 

Cotton  had  been  put  to  a  severe  trial  in  pronouncing  the 
first  church  censure  upon  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  He  has  been 
called  "  a  trimmer"  and  "  a  coward,"  "  a  false  friend "  and 
a  mean  time-ser\;er,  for  the  course  which  he  pursued.  Of 
the  justice  of  these  personal  constructions  and  judgments, 
a  candid  and  considerate  reader  must  decide  for  himself. 
Of  all  the  persons  concerned  in  these  painfully  distracting 
proceedings,  Cotton  had  been  the  most  privileged  for  know 
ing  and  comprehending  the  sentiments  and  principles,  the 
Christian  graces  and  virtues,  and  the  unselfish  services  to 
others  of  this  highly-endowed  woman.  Her  regard,  confi 
dence,  and  affection  toward  him  were  very  strong.  It  was 
to  renew  and  continue  the  satisfaction  she  had  found  in  his 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  256. 


346  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

ministry  that  she  had  left  her  English  home  and  joined 
the  exiles  here.  But  the  wholly  spontaneous  and  un 
guarded  way  in  which  she  manifested  her  partiality  for 
him  became  at  once  embarrassing  to  him.  To  be  singled 
out  by  her,  as  he  was,  emphatically,  and  soon  offensively, 
as  "  the  only  one  of  the  ministers  in  the  Bay "  whose 
preaching  was  pitched  in  the  tone  of  vital  truth  for  edifi 
cation,  and  to  have  this  preference  impressed  and  reiter 
ated  to  the  groups  of  admiring  women  who  listened  to 
her  words  with  respect  for  her  character  and  gratitude  for 
loving  and  skilful  service,  would  act  as  effectively  upon 
his  repute  as  upon  her  own.  The  caprices  as  well  as  the 
convictions  of  her  female  followers  would  lead  to  words, 
acts,  tokens  of  like  and  dislike,  of  sympathy  and  of  antipa 
thy,  in  the  presence  both  of  men  and  women.  The  toss  of 
the  head,  the  look  of  aversion,  the  thronging  upon  the  dis- 
coursings  of  Mr.  Cotton,  and  the  pressing  out  from  the 
assemblies  when  other  elders  were  to  preach,  were  aggra 
vations  not  to  be  unheeded.  The  fact  that  the  young  and 
interesting  nobleman  Henry  Vane,  after  having  been  only 
seven  months  in  the  Colony,  with  which  he  had  no  intent 
to  cast  in  his  lot,  and  who  had  been  enthusiastically  caught 
up  to  displace  the  faithful  and  experienced  Winthrop,  was 
one  of  the  few  men  privileged  to  attend  the  women's 
meetings,  sharing  with  their  leader  the  partiality  for  Mr. 
Cotton,  was  another  embarrassment  to  that  elder.  It  is 
certain,  also,  that  Cotton  sympathized  with  and  approved 
some  of  her  first  utterances,  as  he  understood  them.  In 
deed,  she  may  have  adopted  her  distinctive  views,  or  the 
mode  of  expressing  them,  from  him.  Apart  from  all  the 
subsequent  developments  and  aggravations  of  the  conten 
tion,  it  would  have  been  perfectly  natural  and  accordant 
with  the  religious  fervors  and  engrossing  theological  inter 
est  of  the  community,  that  there  should  have  been  from 
time  to  time,  agitating  it,  a  brisk  and  vigorous  polemical 
excitement.  This  would  have  been  as  much  in  keeping 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  347 

with  the  fitness  of  things  as  are  drill-parades  and  sham- 
fights  for  exercising  regiments  in  camp.  But  it  was  those 
developments  and  aggravations  of  the  original  elements  of 
the  contention,  the  "  inferences "  and  deductions  of  opin 
ion,  the  "  exorbitant  doctrines  "  and  "  unsavory  speeches." 
that  might  well  prompt  Cotton,  as  we  have  seen,  to  plead 
that  he  had  been  wrongfully  claimed  as  in  sympathy  with 
the  extremes  to  which  the  controversy  had  been  carried. 

When  a  real  or  only  a  panic-like  alarm  struck  through 
the  community  of  coming  disasters  forenounced  by  "  Reve 
lations,"  and  memories  were  recalled  of  the  Antinomian 
and  the  Anabaptist  abominations  and  prostrations  of  civil 
order  and  decency  in  the  Low  Countries,  in  Minister,  and 
under  John  of  Leyden,  Cotton  might  well  enter  his  protest 
against  being  charged  with  overt  sympathy  with  the  revo 
lutionists.  When  he  saw  more  than  fifty  of  his  own  flock 
—  some  the  most  honored  and  foremost  citizens  of  Bos 
ton  —  deprived  of  their  arms,  disfranchised,  and  some 
banished,  he  might  shrink  from  being  regarded  as  the 
chaplain  of  sedition.  But  Cotton  shifted  the  sentencing 
upon  Wilson  as  the  pastor  in  the  final  scene. 

Before  pronouncing  the  first  church  censure  of  admoni 
tion  upon  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  Cotton  recognized  with  warmth 
and  tenderness  the  deep  and  high  esteem  in  which  she  had 
been  held  in  the  community  for  her  generous  and  valued 
services  ;  but  he  added  that  her  recent  course  and  heresies 
had  caused  more  harm  by  exciting  such  distraction  and 
apprehensions  of  dread,  even  among  her  friends.  "  He  laid 
her  sin  to  her  conscience  with  much  zeal  and  solemnity ; 
he  admonished  her  also  of  the  height  of  her  spirit :  then 
he  spake  to  the  sisters  of  the  church,  and  advised  them  to 
take  heed  of  her  opinions,  and  to  withhold  all  countenance 
and  respect  from  her,  lest  they  should  harden  her  in  her 
sin."  l  These  were  sad  if  not  harsh  and  cruel  words  to 

1  Welde's  Short  Story,  etc.,  p.  62.  Cotton  says  only  one  of  her  sons  dis 
sented' from  her  sentence  of  admonition.  Welde  says  two. 


348  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

be  spoken  officially  by  a  revered  teacher  to  one  of  the  most 
worthy  and  confiding  of  his  flock.  I  have  found  no  trace 
of  any  resentment,  or  even  of  grief  or  disappointment,  as 
coming  from  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  return  for  them. 

Mr.  John  Clarke,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  hon 
ored  of  the  fifty-eight  members  of  the  Boston  church  who 
had  been  disarmed,  had  already  proposed  to  some  of  his 
censured  brethren  a  removal  from  the  jurisdiction  to  some 
fit  place  for  habitation.  By  advice  of  Roger  Williams  and 
other  friends  they  settled  at  Pocasset,  now  Newport,  R.  I. 
They  were  soon  followed  by  others  of  the  banished  or 
disarmed,  who  made  another  settlement,  at  Portsmouth, 
the  head  of  the  island.  Eighteen  of  these  exiles  entered 
into  a  civil  compact,  March  7,  1638,  a  fortnight  preceding 
the  excommunication  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Twelve  of  these 
were  members  of  the  Boston  church,  which  afterward  sent 
messengers  to  deal  with  them  as  still  under  its  "  watch  and 
ward."  ! 

Two  or  three  days  after  her  excommunication,  Winthrop 
sent  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson  warning  her  to  comply  with  the 
sentence  of  the  Court,  and  to  leave  the  jurisdiction  by  the 
end  of  March.  She  had  intended  to  accompany  Wheel 
wright  and  his  family  to  Exeter,  on  the  Piscataqua;  but 
her  husband  having  joined  in  the  purchase  of  Rhode  Island, 
she  went  with  him  by  land  first  to  Providence.  Vigorous 
measures  were  taken  by  the  Court  to  rid  the  jurisdiction 
as  soon  as  possible  of  all  who  were  under  its  sentence  of 
banishment,  if  they  would  not  retract  and  apologize.  There 
was  in  consequence  a  considerable  emigration  to  the  Island 
in  the  summer  of  the  year.  The  effects  and  consequences 
were  in  every  view  lamentable,  especially  in  domestic, 
social,  and  religious  relations.  The  disruptions  between 
members  of  families,  and  in  private  friendships,  the  aban- 

1  Calender's  Century  Sermon,  R.  I.  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.  84.  The  island  was 
ceded  by  the  Indians.  Manuscript  of  Capt.  Robert  Keayne,  in  Cabinet  of 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


THE    ANTINOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  349 

donment  of  cherished  homes,  and  the  sacrifices  of  property 
were  grievously  submitted  to.  The  Boston  church  seemed 
to  be  threatened  with  absolute  ruin  by  dissolution  before 
its  first  decade  of  life  had  closed.  The  loss  of  so  many  of 
its  best  esteemed  members,  and  the  rancors  and  aliena 
tions  among  the  remnant,  must  have  tasked  all  the  best 
efforts  of  those  who  sought  for  or  offered  edification  in  its 
ministrations,  or  tried  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the  aggrieved. 
A  period  of  many  months,  and  even  the  slow  process  of. 
years,  was  necessary  for  restoring  peace.  This  was  greatly 
helped  by  the  voluntary  confessions  or  concessions,  and  the 
return  to  its  fold,  one  by  one,  of  several  who  had  been  in 
flamed  by  the  passions  of  the  time,  and  who  were  ready  to 
admit  more  or  less  of  wrong  done  by  them  and  repented 
of,  the  church  gladly  restoring  them. 

But  the  most  resolute  and  fully  assured  of  the  banished 
offenders  stood  for  the  views  and  the  course  which  they 
had  espoused.  Their  sufferings  for  a  few  distinctive  opin 
ions,  which  need  not  have  severed  them  from  a  general 
attachment  to  the  fellowship,  creed,  and  discipline  of  the 
Puritan  Church,  very  naturally  led  them  on  to  more  ex 
pansion  of  thought  and  to  freedom  of  speculation,  resulting 
in  wide  ranges  and  variances  of  opinions  on  religious  sub 
jects,  and  compelled  them  to  recognize,  if  it  did  not  per 
suade  them  to  approve,  the  full  principles  of  toleration. 
Individualism  running  often  into  eccentricities  and  imprac 
ticabilities  for  anything  like  accord  and  joint  activity,  was 
the  natural  result.  We  may  trace  to  this  settlement  in 
Rhode  Island  of  so  many  banished  Antinomians  and  their 
sympathizers,  rather  than  to  the  perhaps  exaggerated  lead 
ership  of  Roger  Williams,  the  really  most  effective  first 
step  in  the  introduction  of  liberalism  into  the  theocratic 
commonwealth.  Massachusetts,  indeed,  for  a  long  time 
was  made  to  realize,  and  mournfully  to  regret,  and  try  tO| 
nullify  or  control,  the  results  of  her  impolicy,  —  to  look  at. 
it  only  in  that  light,  —  of  having  prompted  the  vigorous 


350  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

planting  of  a  neighbor  and  rival  colony,  with  antagonistic 
principles,  which  she  regarded  as  the  hot-bed  of  all  sorts 
of  wild  and  alarming  fancies,  follies,  and  mischievous  no 
tions.  Cotton  Mather  was  prompted  to  say  that  if  any  man 
or  woman  had  lost  a  conscience,  or  wished  to  find  one  of 
a  special  sort  or  license,  he  could  be  accommodated  in 
Rhode  Island.  Nor  was  it  strange  that  Massachusetts 
should  put  to  service  all  the  ingenuities  of  its  policy,  with 
some  ventures  in  the  arts  of  intrigue  and  adroitness,  in  a 
series  of  intermeddlings  with  the  affairs  of  Rhode  Island. 
That  island  for  a  while  had  a  separate  charter  and  admin 
istration  of  its  own,  but  afterward  came  into  junction 
with  Providence  Plantations,  the  two  forming  the  present 
State. 

There  was,  however,  one  unruptured  tie  which  still  held 
the  banished  and  exiled  members  of  the  Boston  church  to 
the  once  endeared  fold,  and  that  was  the  covenant  of 
"  watch  and  ward."  Dec.  13, 1638,  was  observed  in  the  Bay 
as  a  solemn  Fast,  on  account  of  prevailing  sickness  and 
heresies,  "  and  the  general  declining  of  professors  to  the 
world."  Cotton  in  his  sermon,  lugubrious  and  saddened 
in  heart,  reviewed  the  melancholy  contention  through  which 
they  had  been  passing.  He  enlarged  upon  and  sought  to 
explain  and  rectify  the  charges  against  himself,  as  already 
stated,  his  name  and  alleged  countenance  of  opinions  which 
he  did  not  hold  and  had  never  expressed  having  been  used 
as  a  cloak  or  subterfuge.  While  approving  the  banish 
ment  of  the  leaders  in  the  strife,  he  recommended  that  oth 
ers  under  censure,  instead  of  being  sent  out  of  the  juris 
diction,  which  would  sever  them  from  religious  oversight 
or  drive  them  into  heresies,  should  be  dealt  with  by  the 
church,  or  fined  or  imprisoned.1  Mrs.  Hutchinson  antici 
pated  further  action  by  the  church,  considering  that  she  and 
it  had  reciprocal  rights  and  duties.  She  therefore  addressed 
to  it  a  letter  of  "  admonition,"  which  was  not  read  because 

1  Winthrop,  i.  280. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  351 

she  was  under  sentence  of  excommunication.1  Reports 
came  to  Massachusetts  that  she  continued  to  exercise  her 
gifts ;  and  also  one  of  doubtful  truth,  that  she  had  denied 
the  necessity  and  lawfulness  of  magistracy.2  Another  re 
port  was  that  admonished  and  excommunicated  members 
from  Boston,  and  some  "  new  professors,"  had  joined  with 
others  on  the  island  in  "  gathering  a  church  in  a  disordered 
way."  Some  of  these  venturing  to  visit  Boston,  when  they 
could  be  caught,  were  "  dealt  with  ; "  among  these  was  the 
head  of  the  Island  Colony,  Mr.  Coddington.  Misfortunes 
in  maternity  by  deformity  of  nature,  which  befell  both  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  and  her  friend  Mary  Dyer,  were  made  the  sub 
jects  of  distressing  discussion  as  Divine  judgments,  and 
much  strengthened  the  popular  feeling  now  increasing 
against  them  among  the  superstitious. 

The  Boston  church  concluded  to  send  a  deputation  — 
Welde  says,  u  four  men  of  a  lovely  and  winning  spirit ; " 
there  were,  however,  only  three  —  to  the  island  on  an  effort 
to  reclaim  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  others.  Their  report  was 
made  to  the  church,  March,  1640.  This  was  an  interest 
ing  rehearsal  of  the  incidents  of  their  journey,  and  of  their 
unsuccessful  efforts  in  the  purpose  of  their  errand.  The 
church  decided  not  to  enforce  a  final  severance  of  its  hold 
upon  the  recusants.3 

One  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  sons  had  remained  in  Boston 
and  with  the  church.  At  this  meeting  he  contented  him- 

1  Winthrop,  i.  293. 

2  See  Letter  of  Chief-Justice  Eddy,  note  to  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  296,  and 
Baylie's  "Dissuasive  from  the  Errors  of  the  Time,"  p.  150.     Baylie  says  that 
Roger  Williams  told  him  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  held  this  opinion. 

8  This  report,  which  is  the  only  detailed  account  of  such  method  in  disci 
pline  in  the  Boston  church  known  to  me  as  extant,  has  a  peculiar  interest,  but 
is  too  long  to  be  copied  here.  It  is  given  in  a  thick  manuscript  from  the  pen  of 
Captain  Keane,  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artiller}',  in  the  Cabinet  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  T  have  heretofore  printed  much  of  it  from  the 
original  in  my  Life  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  in  Sparks's  American  Biography. 
Keane  was  strictly  orthodox.  Those  who  had  been  disarmed  had  been  com 
pelled  to  deposit  their  weapons  with  him. 


352  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

self  with  expressing  a  general  disapproval  of  what  had  been 
done,  declining  to  open  an  argument.  For  this  the  pastor 
reprimanded  him.  Another  of  her  sons,  Francis,  who 
would  not  vote  for  the  "  admonition  "  of  his  mother,  and  so 
had  been  admonished  himself,  while  with  his  parents  at  the 
Island,  in  a  letter  of  July  20,  1640,  asked  dismission  from 
the  church,  which  he  could  not  now  attend,  that  he  might 
join  another  communion.  This  was  refused,  because  that 
other  communion,  by  Puritan  usage,  was  not  recognized  as 
a  church  at  all.  "  They  could  only  recommend  him  to 
God,  and  to  the  word  of  his  grace,  when  there  was  any 
such  word  for  him  to  hear."  l  The  church  felt  kindly  to 
him,  and  addressed  him  as  "  our  beloved  brother."  He 
was  not  in  full  sympathy  with  his  mother.  Mr.  William 
Collins,  a  minister  and  schoolmaster  in  Gloucester,  England, 
and  afterward  in  Hartford,  becoming  interested  in  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  case,  had  visited  her  in  Newport  and  had 
warmly  espoused  her  cause,  expressing  himself  in  very 
sharp  reproaches  which  reached  Massachusetts.  He  mar 
ried  a  daughter  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Venturing  to  come 
to  Boston  in  the  summer  of  1641,  with  his  brother-in-law, 
Francis,  Avho  was  charged  with  calling  the  Boston  church 
"  a  strumpet,"  the  treatment  to  which  they  were  subjected 
indicates  a  sharp  resentment  and  vengefulness.  Their 
reproaches  of  Court  and  Church  must  have  been  extremely 
aggravating.  They  were  imprisoned  till  a  fine  of  a  hundred 
pounds  should  be  paid  by  Collins,  and  one  of  fifty  pounds 
by  his  companion.  One  might  prefer  to  regard  Winthrop 
in  the  following  entry  in  his  Journal  as  rather  the  recorder 
than  the  prompter  of  this  vengefulness  :  — 

"  We  assessed  the  fines  the  higher,  partly  that  by  occasion  thereof 
they  might  be  the  longer  kept  in  from  doing  harm  (for  they  were 
kept  close  prisoners),  and  also  because  that  family  had  put  the 
country  to  so  much  charge  in  the  Synod,  and  other  occasions,  to 

i  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  x.  184. 


THE  ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  353 

the  value  of  five  hundred  pounds  at  least.  But  after,  because  the 
winter  drew  on,  and  the  prison  was  inconvenient,  we  abated  them 
to  forty  pounds  and  twenty  pounds.  But  they  seemed  not  willing 
to  pay  anything.  They  refused  to  come  to  the  church  assemblies 
except  they  were  led,  and  so  they  came  duly.  At  last  we  took 
their  own  bonds  for  their  fine,  and  so  dismissed  them."  x 

The  charges  on  the  records  against  these  offenders  are 
worded  thus  :  "  Mr.  William  Collens  being  found  to  be  a  se 
ducer,  and  his  practices  proved  such,"  etc.  "  Francis  Hutch- 
inson,  for  calling  the  church  of  Boston  a  whoare,  a  strumpet, 
and  other  corrupt  tenents,"  etc.  Having  given  their  personal 
bonds  for  their  reduced  fines,  "  when  it  shalbee  called  for, 
if  they  bee  able,"  they  were  free  to  leave  the  jurisdiction, 
"  not  to  return  but  at  their  utmost  perill."  2 

Sorrows  and  tragic  experiences  gathered  around  the  clos 
ing  years  of  the  life  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  of  most  of  the 
members  of  her  very  large  family.  The  treatment  of  her 
son  and  son-in-law  in  Boston,  and  the  annoying  messages 
constantly  coming  from  the  Boston  church  and  others,  kept 
open  many  wounds.  But  surrounded  as  she  was  by  eccen 
tric  and  self-willed  opinionists  of  all  discordant  notions,  she 
endeavored  with  a  group  of  friends  to  maintain  an  orderly 
religious  assembly.  There  was  no  lack  of  the  means  of 
subsistence  on  her  beautiful  island.  Her  husband,  though 
he  may  have  been,  as  Winthrop  says,  "  a  man  of  weak 
parts,"  and  never  appears  to  have  stood  manfully  in  her 
support  or  defence,  nevertheless  followed  her  fortunes,  and 
called  her  a  "  dear  saint  and  servant  of  God."  He  died  in 
1642.  Sad  it  was  for  him,  after  having  crossed  the  ocean 
with  friends  of  his  youth,  for  sympathy  in  faith,  to  be  re 
strained  from  intercourse  with  them,  though  so  near.  After 
his  death  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  then  probably  fifty  years  of  age, 
with  all  her  family  except  a  daughter  and  a  son,  to  be  soon 
referred  to,  moved  from  the  island  to  the  Dutch  settlements 

i  Journal,  ii.  38-40.  2  Records,  i.  336,  340,  344. 

23 


354  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

near  Astoria,  or  Hell  Gate.  Many  others  moved  with  her, 
apprehending  that  Massachusetts,  on  some  arbitrary  pre 
tences,  might  attempt  jurisdiction  over  the  island.  The 
Indians  were  then  in  open  hostility  with  the  Dutch,  in  pil 
lage,  burning,  and  massacre.  In  one  of  their  raids,  in 
August,  1643,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  Mr.  Collins  and  wife,  grand 
children,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  family  save  one  child,  with 
neighbors,  in  all  being  sixteen  persons,  perished  by  a  lamen 
table  fate.  In  conformity  with  the  grim  and  unforgiving 
spirit  of  her  opponents  this  fate  was  by  many  regarded  as 
the  special  judgment  of  an  angry  Providence,  which  had 
already  visited  her  pride,  contumacy,  and  delusions  with  "  a 
curse  upon  the  fruit  of  her  womb."  The  child  of  eight  years 
of  age  which  was  spared  and  taken  away  by  the  Indians 
was,  four  years  afterward,  restored  through  the  Dutch 
governor  to  her  friends,  at  the  conclusion  of  a  peace. 
Winthrop  says  she  "  had  forgot  her  own  language,  and  all 
her  friends,  and  was  loath  to  have  come  from  the  Indians."  l 
It  is  grateful  now  to  gather  some  of  the  tokens  and  in 
cidents  of  reconciliation,  and  effective  though  slow  and  cau 
tious  recuperation  from  the  rents  and  passions  of  this  con 
vulsing  strife,  which  nearly  wrecked  the  fortunes  of  the  Bay 
Colony.  However  some  of  the  most  exasperated  enemies 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  may  have  viewed  the  tragic  method  of 
her  death,  we  may  trace  from  its  occurrence  the  rise  and  in 
crease  of  regretful  and  forgiving  feelings.  With  the  single 
exception  of  William  Coddington,  all  who  had  been  most 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  shared  in  these 
reconcilements.  He  was  a  thriving  Boston  merchant  and 
the  owner  of  much  property.  He  had  built  the  first  brick 
house  in  Boston.  Becoming  after  his  banishment  chief 
ruler,  and  dying  as  Governor,  of  Rhode  Island,  under  the 
charter  he  had  secured  for  it,  he  continued  steadfast  to  his 
protest  against  Massachusetts,  "  that  his  dissent  might 
appear  to  succeeding  times."  William  Aspinwall,  hon- 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  267. 


THE    ANT1NOMIAN    CONTROVERSY.  355 

ored  as  deacon  and  deputy  of  Boston,  after  having  served 
as  secretary  of  Rhode  Island  Colony,  regretted  his  course 
of  opposition  to  court  and  church.  Applying,  as  one  ban 
ished,  for  liberty  to  visit  Boston,  he  there,  March  27,  1642, 
tendered  his  submission,  and  was  reconciled  to  the  church. 
Winthrop  says  "  he  made  a  very  free  and  full  acknowledge 
ment  of  his  error  and  seducement,  and  that  with  much 
detestation  of  his  sin."  l  He  did  the  same  before  the  mains- 

O 

trates,  and  was  reinstated  by  the  Court.  He  afterward  man 
ifested  his  enthusiasm  of  spirit  by  countenancing  the  ideas 
of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  men.  In  November,  1639,  the  Court 
ordered  "  that  all  that  were  disarmed,  remaining  amongst 
us,  carrying  themselves  peaceably,  shall  have  their  armes 
restored  to  them."  2 

It  must  have  been  with  calm  satisfaction  and  the  ap 
proval  of  his  own  conscience  for  the  course  which  he  had 
pursued,  assured  by  the  sympathy  of  those  around  him,  that 
Governor  Winthrop  made  the  following  entry  in  his  History, 
in  the  autumn  of  1639  :  — 

"  By  this  time  there  appeared  a  great  change  in  the  church  of 
Boston  ;  for  whereas  the  year  before  they  were  all  (save  five  or 
six)  so  affected  to  Mr.  Wheelwright  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and 
those  new  opinions,  as  they  slighted  the  present  governour  and  the 
pastor  [Wilson],  looking  at  them  as  men  under  a  covenant  of  works, 
and  as  their  greatest  enemies  ;  but  they  bearing  all  patiently,  and 
not  withdrawing  themselves  (as  they  were  strongly  solicited  to 
have  done),  but  carrying  themselves  lovingly  and  helpfully  upon  all 
occasions,  the  Lord  brought  about  the  hearts  of  all  the  people  to 
love  and  esteem  them  more  than  ever  before,  and  all  breaches  were 
made  up,  and  the  church  was  saved  from  ruin  beyond  all  expecta 
tion  ;  which  could  hardly  have  been  (in  human  reason)  if  those  two 
had  not  been  guided  by  the  Lord  to  that  moderation,  etc.  And  the 
church  (to  manifest  their  hearty  affection  to  the  governour,  upon 
occasion  of  some  strait  he  was  brought  into  through  his  bailiff's  un 
faithfulness)  sent  him  £200."  3 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  62.  2  Records,  i.  278.  8  Winthrop,  i.  323. 


356  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

Here  certainly  was  a  peaceful  triumph  modestly  appre 
ciated,  and  a  grateful  tribute  touchingly  rendered.  The 
gift  to  Winthrop,  when  his  private  estate  was  impaired  by 
the  fraud  of  a  servant,  was  not  from  the  Colony  treasury, 
but  from  the  private  purses  of  those  who  shortly  before 
had  regarded  and  treated  him  with  strong  aversion.  I  am 
well  aware  that  some  will  judge  me  partial  to  Winthrop. 
But  it  is  from  this  and  many  like  incidental  marks  to  be 
traced  through  the  course  of  the  breach  opened  by  Vane 
and  Wheelwright  that  I  have  been  led  to  allow  less  of  cen 
sure  than  some  of  his  critics  have  expressed  upon  some 
objectionable  attitudes  and  utterances  of  his,  which  cer 
tainly  were  not  judicial,  in  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 
Incidentally  the  paragraph  which  has  just  been  quoted 
brings  us  very  close  to  the  critical  risks,  the  intensity  of 
a  popular  animosity,  happily  but  of  brief  continuance,  and 
the  method  of  a  genial  conciliation,  marking  the  ripening 
and  then  the  cooling  of  the  Antinomian  schism.  It  seems 
that  Winthrop  and  Wilson,  having  at  one  time  but  five  or 
six  of  the  whole  church  membership  on  their  side,  had  been 
advised  to  withdraw  themselves.  Cotton,  though  sustained 
by  all  the  rest,  had  in  his  distraction  or  disgust  for  a  while 
entertained  the  purpose  of  abandoning  his  charge  and  go 
ing  to  Connecticut.  Under  these  circumstances  I  cannot 
but  infer  that  it  was  the  constancy  and  solid  wisdom  of 
Winthrop,  the  founder,  the  statesman,  the  pure  and  devoted 
servant  of  the  Colony,  that  saved  it,  in  the  dismay  of  an 
internal  convulsion,  from  absolute  anarchy. 

More  grateful  still  is  it  to  mention  the  valuable  ser 
vices  rendered  to  the  Commonwealth  by  the  forgiving  de 
scendants  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Her  son  Samuel,  who  had 
remained  in  Boston  under  a  cloud,  was  submitted  for  ex 
amination  by  the  elders  Wilson  and  Eliot,  and  if  found 
"  sound  in  judgment "  was  to  be  free  to  dwell  here.1  He 
proved  a  useful  citizen.  One  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  daugh- 

1  Records,  i.  338. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  357 

ters  was  the  wife  of  Major  Thomas  Savage,  afterward  a  dis 
tinguished  captain  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery 
Company.  Though  one  of  the  "  disarmed  "  sympathizers, 
he  remained  in  Boston,  was  made  commander-in-chief  of 
the  forces  of  Massachusetts  in  the  Indian  war,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  Council.  His  descendant,  the  Hon. 
James  Savage,  the  incomparable  editor  of  Winthrop's 
Journal,  in  his  annotations  on  the  Governor's  text,  treats 
with  great  skill  and  naivete*  the  case  of  his  ancestress, 
and  introduces  some  pleasant  banter  into  the  narrative  of 
the  tempestuous  contest.  By  a  curious  coincidence,  Major 
Savage,  on  the  death  of  his  Hutchinson  wife,  married  a 
daughter  of  Elder  Symmes,  of  Charlestown,  a  fellow-pas 
senger  and  resolute  opponent  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  an 
effective  witness  against  her  on  her  trial.  A  grandson  of 
Elder  Welde,  whose  enmity  stopped  little  short  of  calumny 
upon  her,  became  the  husband  of  one  of  her  great-grand 
daughters.  Another  of  her  sons,  Edward,  who,  though 
disarmed  for  a  time,  remained  in  Boston,  did  good  mili 
tary  service,  and  as  a  captain  in  Philip's  War  was  fatally 
wounded  in  the  Quaboag  fight.  He  was  the  great-grand 
father  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  unfortunate  in  his  career  as 
a  Royal  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  but  highly  honored  in 
many  preceding  offices  and  services,  not  the  least  of  which 
is  his  able  and  faithful  work  as  historian  of  the  Colony.  He 
also,  in  his  impartial  and  judicious  account  of  the  Antino- 
mian  controversy,  is  far  from  espousing  any  ardent  cham 
pionship  of  his  famous  ancestress. 

To  this  list  of  the  reconciled  and  the  restored,  though 
after  a  longer  interval,  must  be  added  the  name  of  the 
prime  heresiarch  and  offender,  Wheelwright.  He  had  a 
long  and  varied  career,  attracting  and  repelling  friends  and 
enemies,  earnest  in  work,  stirring  contentions,  standing 
stiffly  for  his  opinions  and  rights,  but  with  a  prevailing  pur 
pose  of  fidelity  in  all  things.  He  was  minister  successively 
to  flocks  in  Exeter,  Wells,  and  Hampton.  By  the  following 


358  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

entry  on  the  Court  Records,  Sept.  27,  1642,  it  would  seem 
that  there  had  been  an  intervention  on  his  behalf.  "  The 
petition  for  Mr.  Wheelwright,  if  hee  himself  petition  the 
Court  at  Boston,  they  shall  have  power  to  grant  him  safe 
conduct."  Another  record,  under  May,  1643,  is  as  follows  : 
"  Mr.  Wheelright  had  a  safe  conduct  granted,  and  liberty 
to  stay  14  days,  so  it  bee  within  three  months  next  ensu 
ing."  Prompted  by  friends,  he  addressed  a  letter  unneces 
sarily  humiliating  in  its  tone  to  the  Massachusetts  Court,  in 
September,  1643.  This  was  ungraciously,  not  to  say  meanly, 
misconstrued.  He  wrote  another,  of  a  more  guarded  char 
acter,  in  March,  1644,  in  which  he  refused  to  admit  the  "  in 
ferences  "  which  had  been  drawn  from  his  avowed  opinions. 
Winthrop  wished  him  to  appear  in  person.  To  this,  how 
ever,  lie  was  not  inclined,  though  the  relenting  Governor 
thought  that  "  a  wise  and  modest  apology  "  by  mouth  would 
help  his  cause.1  But  "  the  next  Court  released  his  banish 
ment  without  his  appearance."  The  record  is  as  follows  : 

"  It  is  ordered  that  Mr.  Wheelwright  (upon  a  particuler,  solemne, 
and  serious  acknowledgment  and  confession  by  letters,  of  his  evill 
carriages,  and  of  the  Court's  justice  upon  him  for  them)  hath  his 
banishment  taken  of,  and  is  received  in  as  a  member  of  the  com 
monwealth."  2 

This  record  is  certainly  not  worded  with  any  magnanim 
ity  of  tone,  indicating  that  his  old  associates  were  pleased 
to  meet  him  half-way.  I  cannot  find  whether  he  ever  vis 
ited  Boston  again.  In  1655  or  1656  he  made  a  voyage  to 
England,  and  had  converse  with  his  old  college  friend  the 
Protector.  They  must  have  compared  their  opinions  as 
to  the  character  and  spirit  of  Vane.  On  the  Restoration, 
Wheelwright  returned  here,  in  the  summer  of  1662.  He 
aided,  and  succeeded  in  the  ministry  at  Salisbury,  the 
unfortunate  George  Bui-rough,  afterward  executed  in  the 

1  The  interesting  correspondence  is  in  the  Journal,  ii.  162-164. 

2  Records,  ii.  67,  May,  1644. 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY. 


359 


witchcraft  panic,  and  died  suddenly  of  apoplexy,  Nov.  15, 
1679,  aged  eighty-seven  years.  His  last  feud  was  with 
Robert  Pike,  known  as  the  "  New  Puritan." 

There  is  hardly  occasion  to  review  with  many  comments 
the  distracting  and  tragic  narrative  which  has  been  given 
at  sufficient  length.  The  struggle  was  one  of  the  series  of 
strifes  and  assaults  which  aimed  at  the  very  life  of  the 
Biblical  commonwealth.  Roger  Williams  had  stood  al 
most  alone,  without  a  party,  and  with  but  few  sympathizers 
in  his  bold  radicalism.  There  had  been  no  prompting  or 
desire  to  secure  a  reconciliation  with  him ;  and  as  for  any 
wish  that  may  have  been  cherished  that  he  might  meet 
with  due  retribution,  this  must  have  been  fully  met,  by 
learning  with  what  an  intractable  and  harassing  fellow 
ship  of  come-outers,  seekers,  and  disorganizes  he  had  to 
deal.  He  must  often  have  felt  as  does  a  traveller  treading 
his  difficult  way  through  swamps  and  thickets,  beating  off 
a  swarm  of  buzzing  and  stinging  insects.  But  he  was  ad 
mirably  furnished  for  such  exposures,  and  always  had  a 
serene  refuge  within  himself  amid  all  externals  and  buffet- 
ings.  He  did  no  permanent  harm  to  Massachusetts.  He 
was  its  protector  and  benefactor. 

But  the  Antinomian  controversy  was  most  threatening 
of  convulsion,  disaster,  and  of  a  final  overwhelming  ca 
tastrophe.  Its  unintelligible  elements,  its  obscure  and 
mystifying  oracles,  made  a  penumbra  of  dread  shadows 
around  an  almost  equally  undefinable  nucleus  that  might 
be  falsehood  or  truth.  The  conflict  was  thoroughly  Puri 
tanic  in  all  its  features  and  materials.  The  Covenant 
covered  and  held  both  parties  to  it,  though  it  forked  into 
a  dilemma  of  Faith  and  Works.  Of  the  many  points 
which  the  matter  of  the  contention  and  the  method  of 
dealing  with  it  offer  for  remark  there  are  two  which 
may  briefly  engage  us. 

The  first  of  these  is  that  the  contention  found  its  occa 
sion  and  the  mode  in  which  it  would  be  pursued  and  aggra- 


360  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

vated  in  the  theocratic  form  of  the  colonial  administration. 
The  controversy  was  in  its  substance  purely  a  doctrinal  one. 
As  such  it  might  properly  have  been  confined  within  the 
terms  of  church  discipline  and  disposed  of  by  church  mem 
bers.  And  as  it  began  and  for  the  most  part  was  confined 
within  the  covenanted  fold  of  the  Boston  church,  two  very 
mischievous  and  seemingly  needless  agencies  came  in  to 
extend  and  complicate  the  controversy.  One  of  these  was 
the  intermeddling  of  other  churches  in  it  through  the  in 
terposition  of  a  synod.  But  the  synod  was  invited  and 
empowered  for  this  intermeddling  by  the  advice  of  that 
other  agent  of  mischief,  the  General  Court.  The  civil  arm 
of  the  Biblical  commonwealth  was  engaged  to  dispose  of 
a  doctrinal  variance  between  church  members.  The  rea 
son  given  for  this  civil  interposition,  though  consistent 
with  the  theocratic  principle,  was  that  Antinomian  doc 
trines  threatened  civil  order  and  pure  morals.  This  justi 
fication  was  not  wholly  unsupported  by  thoroughly  sincere 
reasons  and  apprehensions  incident  to  the  time  and  cir 
cumstances  of  the  strife.  The  difference  between  living 
under  a  "  covenant  of  faith  "  and  a  "  covenant  of  works," 
as  distinguished  literally  by  persons  of  ordinary  intelli 
gence,  would  be  the  difference  between  being  rigidly  re 
strained  in  conduct  by  external  commands,  rules,  and 
practical  scruples,  and  the  more  or  less  of  laxity,  as  one 
or  another  might  apply  the  rule  to  himself,  in  life  and  be 
havior,  of  a  private  internal  guide.  The  immoralities  and 
abominations  of  fanatical  Antinomians  in  Germany  in  the 
previous  century  had  not  passed  from  memory,  nor  from 
living  reference  to  them.  It  would  be  the  grossest  injus 
tice  to  ascribe  to  one  like  Winthrop  a  reliance  upon  poor 
credulity  in  his  apprehension  of  some  fanatical  outburst 
here.  The  disarming  of  citizens  was  not  the  impulse  of 
any  bugbear  conceit.  The  controversy  had  reached  a 
really  alarming  stage.  So  the  Court,  acting  for  the  the 
ocracy,  with  an  unquailing  front,  and  daring  the  risk  of 


THE   ANTINOMIAN   CONTROVERSY.  361 

the  most  decisive  measures  if  it  should  be  overmastered 
or  thwarted,  brought  either  its  veil ge fulness  or  its  discre 
tion,  as  we  may  decide  the  alternative,  to  crush  the  threat 
ening  anarchy. 

The  other  point  of  importance  to  which  we  must  allow  a 
very  serious  concern  on  the  part  of  the  constituted  authori 
ties  of  the  Colony,  looked  beyond  their  own  immediate  sur 
roundings  and  constituency.  There  are  many  extant  and 
very  emphatic  evidences  of  the  anxiety  felt  by  the  authori 
ties  here,  —  those  most  vitally  interested  in  the  security  and 
good  repute  of  the  Colony,  —  to  guard  it  from  reproach  and 
slander  in  England.  Vane  had  carried  home  with  him  the 
account  of  the  sad  dissensions ;  but  he  was  of  too  generous 
a  nature  to  mingle  any  malignity  in  his  report,  or  to  aggra 
vate  them.  Massachusetts  through  its  whole  colonial 
period,  and  indeed  for  some  time  afterward,  till  its  era 
of  Independence,  always  was  anxious  and  careful  to  have 
warm  friends,  even  strong  partisans  and  pleaders,  in  both 
religious  and  political  groups,  near  to  the  government.  It 
depended  upon  these  to  explain  its  course  of  action  and 
to  stand  for  it  against  its  impugners  and  -enemies.  And 
there  is  one  point  bearing  upon  this  matter  on  which  it 
would  be  impossible  to  lay  undue  stress.  Massachusetts 
was  jealous  of  its  good  repute  for  an  orderly,  sober,  dig 
nified,  and  serious  form  of  citizenship,  grave  and  watchful 
maintenance  of  moral  rectitude,  and  freedom  from  every 
form  of  the  fanaticism  and  license  and  discord  of  secta- 
rism.  It  intended  that  in  all  the  interests  of  private,  do 
mestic,  social,  and  civil  life  its  standard  should  be  even 
above  that  which  was  recognized  under  the  discipline  of 
the  Church  of  England.  How  lamentable,  then,  the  appre 
hension  of  the  effect  on  their  friends  or  their  enemies  at 
home  of  the  reports  of  the  distractions  in  the  Colony. 
They  took  all  the  care  they  could  to  correct  or  nullify  this 
effect.  Passengers  for  England  at  this  crisis  were  in 
structed  to  put  the  best  construction  possible  on  the  con- 


862  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

tention,  by  explaining  that  the  two  parties  to  the  strife 
differed  only  "  as  to  how  they  might  most  magnify  the 
grace  of  God  in  them  or  to  them."  Doubtless  the  stiff  and 
severe  measures  of  the  Court  were  relied  upon  as  showing 
to  friends  abroad  the  intention  and  ability  to  crush  down 
the  threatening  mischief  and  its  abettors.  In  concluding 
this  review,  it  should  perhaps  be  intimated  that  as  the" 
authorities  on  their  Records  give  no  intimation  that  they 
ever  repented  of,  regretted,  apologized  for,  or  retracted  any 
of  their  penalties,  except  to  suppliants,  and  that  all  the 
concessions,  retractations,  and  petitions  came  from  the  dis 
comfited  party,  this  result  may  be  taken  as  vindicating  the 
justice  and  policy  of  the  Court.  But  this  conclusion  might 
be  gravely  questioned. 


X. 

A  JESUIT  ENJOYS  PURITAN  HOSPITALITY. 

IT  is  a  relief  to  turn  awhile  from  the  sombreness  of  the 
matter  of  some  of  the  preceding  pages,  and  before  dealing 
with  the  yet  more  painful  matter  of  pages  that  are  to 
follow,  to  entertain  for  the  moment  a  more  genial  theme. 
This  presents  to  us  a  charming  view  of  some  social  amenities 
extended  to  a  Jesuit  visitor  in  the  Puritan  Colony,  who,  in 
his  character  of  an  envoy  from  the  Governor  of  the  French 
Colonists  in  Canada,  circulated  here  freely  as  a  welcome 
guest  in  private  homes  and  at  public  tables.  Had  he  ven 
tured  here  in  any  private  capacity,  his  reception  would  have 
been  an  ungracious  one,  and  his  lodging  would  have  been 
in  the  jail.  Dreaded  as  were  Antinomians,  Baptists,  and 
Quakers  by  the  magistrates  and  Court  of  the  Bay,  a  Jesuit 
priest  concentrated  upon  himself  their  sternest  antipathies 
and  their  hate.  Indeed,  one  of  the  fancies  passing  into 
dark  rumors  connected  with  the  coming  of  the  first  Quakers 
here  was  that  they  were  Franciscan  friars  in  disguise, 
on  some  errand  of  mischief.  The  Court  of  the  Bay,  in 
attempting  afterward  to  vindicate  its  capital  law  against 
the  Quakers,  ventured  to  plead  that  it  had  dealt  with  them 
as  English  law,  then  inquisitorial  and  relentless,  with  tor 
tures  and  the  block,  dealt  with  Papal  intriguers.  So  we 
find  a  law  on  our  court  records  anticipating  a  possible 
occasion  for  its  use. 

There  is  an  historic  interest  in  the  wording  of  this  1-aw 
in  which  the  Colony  Court  followed  the  lead  of  the  mother 
country.  It  is  as  follows  :  — 


364  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

May  26,  1647.  "This  Courte  taking  into  consideration  the 
great  warrs,  combustions,  and  divisions  which  are  this  day  in 
Europe,  and  that  the  same  are  observed  to  be  chiefly  raised  and 
fomented  by  the  secret  underminings  and  solicitations  of  those 
of  the  Jesuitical!  order,  men  brought  up  and  devoted  to  the  relig- 
\  ion  and  courte  of  Rome,  which  hath  occasioned  diverse  states  to 
expell  them  their  territories,  for  prevention  of  like  evils  among 
ourselves,  it  is  therefore  ordered  and  enacted  by  authority  of  this 
Courte,  that  no  Jesuit  or  spirituall  or  ecclesiasticall  person  (as  they 
are  tearmed)  ordained  by  the  authority  of  the  pope  or  sea  of  Rome, 
shall  henceforth  at  any  time  repair  to  or  come  within  this  jurisdic 
tion  ;  and  if  any  person  shall  give  just  cause  of  suspition,  that  he  is 
one  of  such  society  or  order,  he  shalbe  brought  before  some  of  the 
magistrates,  and  if  he  cannot  free  himselfe  of  such  suspition,  he 
shalbe  committed  or  bound  over  to  the  next  Courte  of  Assistants, 
to  be  tried  and  proceeded  with  by  banishment  or  otherwise,  as 
the  Courte  shall  see  cause ;  and  if  any  such  person  so  banished 
shalbe  taken  the  second  time  within  this  jurisdiction,  he  shall 
upon  lawfull  triall  and  conviction  be  put  to  death."  1 

Exceptions  are  made  for  the  shipwrecked,  public  messen 
gers,  and  seamen,  coming  peacefully,  behaving  inoffen 
sively,  and  departing. 

The  jealousies  leading  to  actual  hostilities,  with  their 
chronic  rivalries  and  contentions  between  the  English  and 
the  French  colonists  for  mastery  on  this  continent,  which 
extended  over  a  century  and  a  half,  were  preceded  by  some 
desultory  intercourse  through  messengers.  It  is  amusing 
to  read  in  Winthrop  the  gingerly  and  cautious  recognition 
of  the  visits  to  Boston  of  these  "  Papistical "  personages. 
In  1643  the  Court  had  been  greatly  exercised  by  the  call 
for  its  mediation  or  hostile  action  in  the  quarrel  between 
D'Aulnay  and  La  Tour.  The  Scriptures  were  searched 
from  beginning  to  end  by  the  magistrates  and  elders  in 
their  disputations,  for  warnings,  prohibitions,  or  sanctions 
in  emergent  cases,  as  to  entering  into  dealings  or  alliances 

1  Records,  ii.  193. 


A  JESUIT  ENJOYS   PURITAN   HOSPITALITY.  365 

with  "  idolaters ; "  Papists  being  allowed  by  all  to  be  such. 
Jehoshaphat,  Ahab,  Josias,  Amaziah,  Pharaoh  Necho,  and 
others  are  put  to  service.  Reference  is  made  to  this  matter 
here  only  to  note  the  mention  by  Winthrop  that  in  the 
retinue  of  La  Tour,  when  he  arrived  in  Boston,  March  4, 
1643,  were  "  two  friars  and  two  women  sent  to  wait  upon 
La  Tour  his  lady."  These  "friars"  seem  for  the  most 
part  to  have  considerately  remained  on  shipboard.  But 
Winthrop  tells  us  :  — 

"  Of  the  two  friars  which  came  in  this  ship,  the  one  was  a  very 
learned  acute  man.  Divers  of  our  elders  who  had  conference  with 
him  reported  so  of  him.  They  came  not  into  the  town,  lest  they 
should  give  offence,  but  once,  being  brought  by  some  to  see  Mr. 
Cotton  and  confer  with  him ;  and  when  they  came  to  depart,  the 
chief  came  to  take  leave  of  the  governour  and  two  elders  of  Bos 
ton,  and  showed  himself  very  thankful  for  the  courtesy  they  found 
among  us."  l 

Again,  in  September,  1646,  Monsieur  d'Aulnay,  with  two 
more  of  these  Papists,  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  Lord's  Day. 
After  the  exercises  of  public  worship,  with  scrupulous  con 
sideration  courteous  hospitalities  were  extended  to  the 
visitors  by  the  Governor.  Lingering  in  their  visit,  Win 
throp  tells  us :  — 

"  The  Lord's  day  they  were  here,  tke  governour,  acquainting 
them  with  our  manner,  that  all  men  either  come  to  our  public 
meetings,  or  keep  themselves  quiet  in  their  houses,  and  finding 
that  the  place  where  they  lodged  would  not  be  convenient  for 
them  that  day,  invited  them  home  to  his  house,  where  they  con 
tinued  private  all  that  day  until  sunset,  and  made  use  of  such 
books,  Latin  and  French,  as  he  had,  and  the  liberty  of  a  private 
walk  in  his  garden,  and  so  gave  no  offence,"  etc.2 

There  is  a  charming  naivete*  in  this  relation.  No  doubt 
the  urbane  Governor  used  the  most  delicate  terms  for 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  127.  2  i^id.,  ii.  275. 


366  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

informing  the  Papists  that  if  they  would  not  go  to  u  meet 
ing,"  no  strolling  about  the  streets  was  allowed  in  Boston 
on  the  Sabbath.  But  what  constrained  relations  were  thus 
exhibited  between  Christian  disciples ! 

As  reference  is  soon  to  be  made  to  the  fishing  and  truck 
ing  place  of  the  Plymouth  people  near  the  Kennebec,  an 
other  matter  may  have  an  incidental  interest. 

Our  historians  have  long  recognized  something  unex 
plained  in  the  relations  between  the  famous  peppery-tem 
pered —  but  for  his  prowess  invaluable  —  military  captain, 
Miles  Standish,  and  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  He  had 
followed  their  fortunes  from  his  service  in  the  Low  Coun 
tries,  and  was  constant  to  and  fully  trusted  by  them.  But 
he  was  not  under  their  church  covenant,  though  not  shock 
ing  them  otherwise  than  by  free  speech.  It  has  been  sug 
gested  that  the  explanation  may  be  that  Standish,  loyal  to 
the  faith  of  his  ancestry  and  family,  may  have  been  an 
adherent  of  the  old  Church,  being  quietly  reticent  on  the 
matter.  He  was  always  ready  to  go  in  his  pinnace  for 
trucking  with  the  Indians  at  the  Kennebec.  Here  on  his 
visits  he  might  easily  have  had  the  services  of  a  priest  for 
adjusting  his  conscience. 

The  French  in  Canada  had  received  several  tenders  for 
negotiations  from  the  Massachusetts  Colonists,  for  the 
peaceful  conduct  of  trade,  and  for  amity,  even  if  their 
monarchs  should  be  at  war  at  home.  In  1650,  Father 
Gabriel  Druillette,  of  the  Company  of  Jesus,  a  man  of  a 
gentle  and  devout  spirit,  and  one  of  the  most  heroic  of 
missionaries,  was  faithfully  pursuing  his  toilsome  work  for 
the  Abenaquis  in  parts  of  the  region  disputed  between  the 
two  crowns  as  Acadie  in  1646.  He  had,  as  he  believed, 
by  a  miracle,  recovered  his  sight  wholly  lost  in  the  smoke 
of  Indian  cabins.  His  red  catechumens  were  warmly  at 
tached  to  him  for  his  zeal  and  kindness.  The  French  in 
their  alliance  with  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins  had  of 
course  been  compelled  to  espouse  their  enmity  with  the 


A   JESUIT  ENJOYS   PURITAN    HOSPITALITY.  367 

Five  Nations  of  New  York,  the  ferocious  Iroquois.  The 
English  had  had  no  trouble  with  these  warlike  tribes,  and 
one  of  them,  the  Mohawks,  had  always  been  in  friendly 
relations  with  the  Dutch,  up  the  Hudson.  With  a  view  to 
engage  the  English  Colonies  in  alliance  with  the  French 
against  the  Iroquois,  as  well  as  to  promote  a  league  for 
trade,  D'Ailleboust,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  sent  Dru- 
illette  in  1650  with  the  credentials  of  an  ambassador  on 
that  errand.  He  hoped  that  the  bribe  of  trade  would 
secure  the  alliance  of  arms  by  drawing  from  the  English 
military  aid.  We  have  the  good  Father's  Journal  of  his 
mission ;  and  it  is  because  of  his  genial  narration  of  the 
kindness  which  he  received,  not  only  from  Englishmen, 
but  from  grim  Puritans,  that  full  particulars  from  it  are 
given  here.1 

The  Father  left  Quebec  on  the  first  of  September  with 
one  of  his  Indian  converts,  a  chief.  Passing  through 
Narautsonat  (Norridgewook),  the  highest  settlement  of  the 
Indians  on  the  Kennebec,  he  met  at  the  present  Augusta 
the  "  Commissioner  Jehan  Winslau."  This  was  John 
Winslow,  the  agent  of  Plymouth  at  its  factory,  or  trucking- 
house,  on  the  Kennebec.  The  Father  took  most  fondly  to 
Winslow,  who,  he  says,  treated  him  with  much  kindness, 
and  they  lodged  together.  He  believed  Winslow  to  be 
warmly  interested  in  the  conversion  of  the  savages,  as 
was  his  brother  Edward,  then  the  agent  of  the  Colonies  to 
Parliament.  Druillette  says  that  he  wrote  of  these  mat 
ters  to  his  Governor  and  Superior  at  Quebec.  Winslow, 
at  his  own  inconvenience,  made  the  difficult  foot-journey 
with  the  priest  to  Maremiten  (Merry-Meeting  Bay).  On 
the  25th  of  September  the  latter  embarked  on  an  Eng 
lish  vessel,  seeing  the  English  fishermen  at  Temeriscau 

1  Narre  du  Voyage  faict  pour  la  Mission  des  Abnaquiois,  et  des  Connais- 
sances  tirez  de  la  Nouvelle  Angleterre  et  des  dispositions  des  Magistrats  de 
cette  Republique  pour  le  secours  centre  les  Iroquois,  es  annees  1650  and  1651. 
Par  Le  B.  Pere  Gabriel  Druillette,  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus.  Quebec. 


368  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

(Damaris-Cove).  Contrary  winds  delayed  his  reaching 
Kepane  (Cape  Ann)  till  December  5.  Thence  by  foot- 
travel  and  boat  he  came  to  Charlestown,  where,  his  mis 
sion  being  recognized,  he  was  directed  to  cross  the  river  to 
Boston,  to  the  house  of  "  Maj.  Gen.  Gebin,"  to  whose  affec 
tion  he  had  been  commended  by  his  friend  Winslow. 

The  Father  could  not  have  fallen  into  better  hands 
than  those  of  Maj.-Gen.  Edward  Gibbons,  a  man  of  elastic 
conscience,  and  of  worse  than  dubious  habits,  though  in 
covenant  a  church  member,  and  at  times  before  the  courts. 
He  was  one  of  that  not  small  class  of  picturesque  and  loose 
men,  Captain  Underhill  being  the  most  conspicuous  speci 
men,  who  were  somewhat  leniently  tolerated  in  our  early 
days  for  their  needful  military  service.  This  "  Sieur 
Gebin,"  as  the  priest  writes,  invited  him  to  his  hospitali 
ties  and  charged  him  to  make  no  other  house  his  home 
while  he  remained  here.  The  following  sentence  is  sug 
gestive  :  "  Sieur  Gebin  me  donna  un  clef  d'un  departement 
en  sa  maison  ou  je  pouvais  avec  toute  liberte  faire  ma 
priere  et  les  exercices  de  ma  religion."  In  thus  furnishing 
the  priest  with  a  key  and  a  private  chamber  where  he 
might  say  his  prayers  and  perform  the  exercises  of  his 
religion,  the  Puritan  church  member — it  would  have  been 
to  the  scandal  of  his  more  rigid  brethren  had  they  known 
it  —  connived  at  the  performance  of  probably  the  first  Mass 
in  Boston.  On  the  8th  of  December  Gibbons  accompanied 
the  priest  to  a  village  distant  from  Boston  which  he  calls 
"  Rogsbray,"  —  known  to  us  as  Roxbtiry,  —  where  he  was 
to  present  himself  with  his  credentials  to  that  austerest  of 
Puritans,  Governor  Dudley.  The  Governor  having  opened 
the  papers  and  listened  to  a  translation  of  them  by  an  in 
terpreter,1  courteously  promised  to  lay  them  before  the 
magistrates  in  Boston,  before  whom  the  priest  was  to  pre 
sent  himself  on  the  13th  of  the  month.  On  that  day  the 

1  Dudley  ought  to  have  kept  his  French,  as  Endicott  did,  for  he  had  served 
in  the  Huguenot  army  under  Henry  IV. 


A   JESUIT   ENJOYS   PURITAN   HOSPITALITY.  369 

Governor,  magistrates,  secretary,  and  one  deputy  received 
him  at  dinner,  after  which  they  listened  to  his  message. 
Then  he  was  asked  to  retire  for  a  while  that  they  might 
confer  together.  Being  summoned  again  to  supper,  he  re 
ceived  their  answer.  The  priest  does  not  tell  us  what  it 
was,  but  we  are  informed  about  it.  The  four  Colonies, 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven, 
having  formed  a  union  for  certain  general  interests,  nei 
ther  of  them  could  enter  into  such  measures  as  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Canada  desired,  without  consultation  and  accord. 
So  the  priest  would  be  informed  that  his  mission  must 
come  before  the  commissioners,  two  from  each  Colony,  at 
their  next  meeting.  He  had  pleaded  before  the  magis 
trates,  he  says,  in  behalf  of  his  Abenaquis  catechumens 
against  the  murderous  Iroquois.  It  was  intimated  to  him 
that  as  the  catechumens  whom  he  represented  at  Kennebec 
were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth,  his  application 
might  well  be  made  to  the  authorities  of  that  Colony. 
Spending  the  interval  doubtless  with  his  friend  Gibbons,  he 
started  on  the  21st  for  Plymouth,  arriving  the  next  day, 
where  he  lodged  with  "  one  of  the  five  farmers  at  Kenne 
bec  named  padis  "  [Paddy].  He  was  received  with  courtesy 
by  the  Governor  "  Je-Brentford,"  —  whose  name,  however, 
was  William  Bradford,  —  and  an  audience  was  appointed 
for  the  next  day.  He  was  also  invited  to  a  repast  of  fish 
which  the  Governor  fitted  to  his  "  occasion,"  knowing  the 
day  to  be  Friday.  The  priest  found  favor  among  the  people 
of  the  town,  and  Capt.  Thomas  Willets  supported  his  appli 
cation  to  the  Governor,  and  no  doubt  he  felt  encouraged. 
Though  he  does  not  mention  the  result,  we  learn  from  the 
Plymouth  court  records  of  June,  1651,  that  the  Court  did 
not  favor  the  design  of  allowing  the  French  to  pass  through 
their  jurisdiction  for  purposes  of  war. 

On  the  24th  of  December  the  priest  started  by  land  for 
Boston,  with  the  son  and  nephew  of  his  friend  Gibbons,  who, 
he  says,  paid  his  charges  on  the  route. 

24 


370  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

And  now  we  have  to  present  to  ourselves  a  notable  scene. 
The  priest  writes :  "  On  my  way  I  arrived  at  Rogsbray, 
where  the  minister,  named  Master  heliot,  who  was  instruct 
ing  some  savages,  received  me  to  lodge  with  him,  as  the 
night  had  overtaken  me.  He  treated  me  with  respect  and 
affection,  and  prayed  me  to  pass  the  winter  with  him." 
Here  is  a  scene  that  might  well  engage  the  pencil  of  an 
artist  whose  sympathies  responded  to  the  subject.  Two 
men,  then  in  the  vigor  of  life,  who  were  yet  to  pass  their 
fourscore  years  in  their  loved  but  poorly  rewarding  labors 
for  the  savages,  separated  as  the  poles  in  their  religious 
convictions,  principles,  and  methods,  trained  in  antipathies 
and  zealous  hostility  to  each  other,  are  seen  in  simple,  hu 
man,  loving  converse  as  kind  host  and  responsive  stranger 
guest.  The  humble  sitting  and  working  room  of  the  Apos 
tle  Eliot,  in  his  modest  cottage,  has  the  essentials  of  com 
fort,  and  there  is  a  guest-chamber.  Around  the  hearthstone 
are  two  or  three  Indian  children,  which  Eliot  always  had 
near  him  as  pupils,  while  he  himself  was  a  learner  from 
some  docile  elders  of  the  race  whose  "  barbarous  tongue  "  he 
was  seeking  to  acquire  through  grunts  and  gutturals,  that 
he  might  set  forth  in  it  "  the  whole  oracles  of  God."  His 
hopeful  experiment  in  the  Indian  village  at  Natick  had 
recently  been  put  on  trial.  The  priest  was,  after  his  own 
different  fashion,  spending  himself  in  his  own  work.  The 
aims  of  both  were  the  same ;  their  methods  widely  unlike : 
Eliot's  most  severe  in  its  exactions,  the  priest's  lenient  and 
indulgent  in  its  conditions.  Eliot  insisted  that  the  savages 
"  should  be  brought  to  civility,"  abandoning  all  wildwood 
roaming,  be  humanized,  cleanly,  clothed,  and  trained  in 
home  and  field  industries.  They  should  be  taught  to  pray, 
be  put  through  a  course  of  Calvinistic  divinity,  and  have 
the  Scriptures  "  opened "  to  them  in  their  own  tongue. 
The  priest  pestered  his  catechumens  as  little  as  possible  by 
crossing  their  native  instincts  for  a  free  life  in  the  wilder 
ness.  The  rosary,  the  crucifix,  and  the  sacraments,  with 


A   JESUIT   ENJOYS   PURITAN   HOSPITALITY.  371 

repeated  prayer  and  creed,  and  the  procession  following  the 
arbored  cross,  were  his  agencies  for  salvation. 

It  was  the  Christmas  season  when  the  Puritan  minister 
and  the  Jesuit  priest  thus  blended  their  alienating  antipa 
thies  into  reconciling  sympathies  in  consecrated  work. 
Perhaps  their  conversation  was  in  Latin,  though  Eliot  was 
an  accomplished  scholar,  and  might  have  the  mastery  of 
the  French.  The  two  might  have  spent  the  winter  prof 
itably  together.  They  certainly  would  have  passed  it 
amicably.  The  evening  and  morning  devotions  of  the 
Puritan  household,  with  grace  and  blessing  at  each  meal, 
must  have  kept  their  wonted  course ;  while  the  faithful 
priest  had  his  oratory,  his  orisons,  and  his  matin  Mass 
before  breaking  his  fast. 

Druillette  returned  to  Boston  on  the  29th  of  December, 
and  reported  himself  to  "  Major  Gen.  guebin."  The  next 
day  he  had  speech  with  "  Sieur  Ebens  [Hibbins]  one  of 
the  magistrates,  who  encouraged  him  with  the  hope  that  the 
Governor  of  Plymouth  would  afford  him  help  against  the 
Iroquois,  saying  "that  it  was  reasonable  to  aid  brother 
Christians,  though  of  another  religion,  especially  against 
a  Pagan  persecution  of  Christians."  He  received  through 
Hibbins  the  answer  of  the  Governor  and  magistrates  of 
Boston,  not  telling  us  what  it  was,  though  probably  as  be 
fore  stated.  The  last  of  the  month  he  went  to  Roxbury  to 
take  leave  of  Dudley.  The  Governor  assured  him  that  the 
way  through  Boston  should  be  open  for  any  of  the  French 
who  wished  to  go  against  the  Iroquois,  and  wished  him  to 
inform  his  own  Governor  of  the  desire  of  Massachusetts  to 
be  at  amity  with  him,  even  though  war  should  spring  up 
between  the  two  crowns.  Dudley  also  expressed  his  belief 
that  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  would  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  the  French  for  help  against  the  Iroquois,  and 
promised  all  in  his  power  in  aid  of  the  measure.  The 
priest  the  next  day,  being  January  1,  wrote  a  letter  to 
his  brother  Jesuit,  Le  Jeune,  to  be  franked  by  an  English 


372  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

vessel  to  sail  on  the  8th,  asking  a  reply  to  be  sent  to  Boston 
on  some  matters  concerning 'the  fisheries  at  Gaspee.  He 
also  wrote  to  Edward  Winslow,  by  suggestion  of  his  brother, 
soliciting  him  to  address  the  commissioners  of  the  four 
Colonies  in  favor  of  his  cause.  He  made  a  similar  appeal 
to  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  Governor  of  "  Kenitigout," — "a 
very  good  friend  of  the  French  and  the  savages."  His 
friend  Gibbons  promised  his  co-operation,  but  frankly  told 
him  that  he  thought  the  people  of  Boston  would  not  aid 
him,  as  it  would  alienate  the  Iroquois,  and  thus  interfere 
with  a  design  for  a  new  project  of  a  settlement  in  the  in 
terest  of  New  Sweden.  January  5,  Gibbon  conducted  the 
priest  to  the  harbor  and  commended  him  strongly  to 
"  Thomas  Yau,"  master  of  a  bark  about  sailing  for  Kenne- 
bec.  The  9th  of  the  month  bad  weather  stopped  him  at 
Morbletz  (Marblehead),  where,  among  many  persons,  the 
minister,  William  Walter,  "  received  me  with  great  affection, 
and  I  went  in  his  company  to  Salem  to  have  speech  with 
Sieur  Indicott,  who  understands  and  speaks  French  well,  is 
a  good  friend  of  that  nation,  and  very  earnest  that  his 
children  should  retain  that  affection.  Seeing  that  I  had 
no  money  he  supplied  me,  and  treated  at  his  table  for  eight 
days  the  magistrates  who  gave  audience  to  everybody.  I 
left  with  him  a  letter  to  advance  my  object  with  the  Gen 
eral  Court  to  be  held  in  Boston  on  the  thirteenth  of  May. 
He  assured  me  that  he  would  do  his  utmost  to  influence 
the  Boston  Colony,  which  served  as  a  lead  for  the  others, 
saying  that  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  had  a  good  cause  for 
asking  aid  from  the  other  colonies.  At  my  departure  he 
said  he  was  much  pleased  that  I  had  left  a  writing  on  the 
part  of  my  Governor  and  my  catechumens,  which  he  thor 
oughly  approved,  and  that  he  would  despatch  a  man  to  take 
a  letter  for  me  to  the  Kennebec  that  would  inform  me  of 
what  had  been  done." 

This  is  certainly  a  very  graceful  and  genial  narrative. 
The   French   Governor  had  a  faithful  and   accomplished 


A   JESUIT  ENJOYS  PURITAN   HOSPITALITY.  373 

diplomatic  servant  on  his  errand,  coming  out  of  the  woods 
and  his  rude  companionship,  to  pass  freely  and  without  of 
fence  among  those  who  in  person,  speech,  manners,  and  the 
ways  of  their  homes,  were  the  representatives  of  a  Puritan 
ism  as  yet  unreduced  in  its  austerity.  They  must  all  have 
known  that  the  priest  carried  with  him  the  "  idolatrous  " 
furnishings  for  his  devotions,  and  observed  the  sanctities 
of  his  profession.  But  no  slight,  no  challenge  was  inflicted 
on  him.  His  visit  was  at  midwinter,  with  its  snow  and 
tempests  on  land  and  sea.  He  seems  to  have  been  wholly 
penniless,  but  lacked  for  nothing.  His  host,  Gibbons,  was 
not  a  man  likely  to  practise  a  lean  hospitality  in  larder  or 
good  liquors.  Most  happy  was  the  luck  by  which  the 
priest,  who  had  started  on  his  home  voyage,  was  compelled 
by  stress  of  weather  to  delay  so  that  he  was  favored  by  a 
visit  to  Endicott,  so  charmingly  described.  That  grim  old 
European  soldier  had  preserved  his  French,  and  was  doubt 
less  pleased  to  give  it  an  airing.  Under  other  circum 
stances  he  would  without  shrinking  have  swung  the  priest 
from  the  ladder  with  a  halter  about  his  neck.  But  he  had 
in  him  warm  human  sympathies.  There  may  have  been 
subdued  mutterings  among  the  common  people  at  this  pro 
longed  circulation  of  a  Jesuit  among  the  homes  and  official 
halls  of  the  colony,  but  no  record  remains  of  any  disaffec 
tion  or  complaint.  Nor  does  the  priest  intimate  anything 
of  a  religious  discussion.  He  and  Eliot  would  have  found 
enough  in  their  general  interests  to  engage  them.  If  he 
had  accepted  Eliot's  invitation  to  pass  the  winter  with 
him,  avoiding  his  homeward  journey,  they  might  have 
opened  their  polemics. 

The  following  April  the  priest  met  John  Winslow  at 
the  Kennebec,  on  his  arrival  from  Plymouth  and  Boston, 
who  assured  him  that  the  magistrates  and  the  two  commis 
sioners  of  Plymouth  had  pledged  themselves,  on  account  of 
the  interest  of  that  Colony  in  the  Kennebec,  to  press  the 
other  Colonies  in  the  favor  of  the  Abnaquis  against  the 


374  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Iroquois.  Encouragement  and  hope  came  to  the  priest 
from  many  sources,  and  he  diligently  used  all  appliances 
for  his  cause.  But  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment. 
Finding  that  the  matter  would  be  disposed  of  by  the  com 
missioners  of  the  four  Colonies  then  to  meet  at  New  Haven, 
Druillette  was  despatched  again  from  Quebec,  with  one  of 
the  Governor's  Council  in  company.  ,  In  September,  1651, 
the  emissaries  were  most  courteously  received,  and  pre 
sented  their  case  forcibly  and  adroitly.  But  the  commis 
sioners,  while  pliant  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  trade,  had 
no  inclination  to  open  hostilities  with  the  Mohawks,  who 
were  neither  in  subjection  to,  nor  at  war  with,  the  English. 
The  ambassadors  had  this  to  carry  back  in  a  dignified  Latin 
letter  to  the  French  Governor.  The  reader  may  have  no 
ticed  in  Druillette's  Journal  how  freely  he  deals  with  Eng 
lish  names  of  persons  and  places.  His  own  name  fares  no 
better  in  the  records  of  the  commissioners,  —  which  appears 
under  the  aliases  of  Mr.  Derwellets,  Mr.  Derwelletes,  Mr. 
Drwellets,  and  Mr.  Drovillety. 

This  Narration  of  Druillette  was  found  in  a  bureau  con 
taining  some  of  the  effects  of  the  Jesuits,  in  Quebec,  and 
was  published  at  the  charge  of  Mr.  James  Lenox,  of  New 
York,  in  1855. 


XL 

THE  BAPTISTS  UNDER  PURITAN  DISCIPLINE. 

THE  difference  of  meaning  and  use  between  the  two 
words  Baptists  and  Anabaptists  gives  us  the  occasion  and 
the  matter  of  one  of  the  largest  sectarian  divisions  among 
Protestants,  consequent  upon  the  rupture  of  unity  in  the 
Church  at  the  Reformation.  It  was  in  Germany,  about  a 
century  before  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  that  the 
most  formidable  and  deplorable  social  convulsions,  with 
wild  excesses  of  fanaticism,  made  those  then  first  known 
as  Anabaptists  to  be  regarded  as  the  most  dreaded  class  of 
opinionists.  The  representatives  of  the  sect  in  England, 
while  having  to  bear  the  odium  of  its  earlier  representa 
tives  in  Germany,  gave  the  earnestness  of  their  zeal  rather 
to  fidelity  to  conscience  than  to  offensiveness  of  conduct. 
A  very  interesting  episode  in  early  Massachusetts  history 
is  connected  with  the  first  introduction  of  the  controversy 
here,  as  the  stern  discipline  of  authority  was  brought  to 
bear  severely  upon  a  much  beloved  and  honored  man,  the 
first  President  of  Harvard  College.  He  may  well  stand  as 
the  central  figure  among  the  sufferers  by  the  theocratic 
administration,  in  the  narration  now  to  be  traced.  This 
controversy,  like  the  Antinomian,  was  within  the  limits  of 
Puritanism,  its  weapons  being  Scripture  texts. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation  we  may  assume  as 
substantially  true  the  general  statement,  that  every  human 
being  in  Christendom  had  been  baptized  in  infancy,  — 
the  rite  being  performed  by  pouring  or  sprinkling.  The 


376  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

supreme  importance  of  the  rite  attached  to  it  because  of 
the  belief  in  its  absolute  necessity  and  its  sovereign  efficacy. 
The  teaching  of  the  Roman  Church  about  it  is,  that  "  Bap 
tism  washes  away  original  sin,  in  which  we  were  all  born 
by  reason  of  the  sin  of  our  first  father,  Adam ;  it  infuses 
the  habit  of  divine  grace  into  our  souls,  and  makes  us  the 
adopted  children  of  God ;  it  imprints  a  character  or  spirit 
ual  mark  in  the  soul ;  it  lets  us  into  the  Church  of  God." 1 
The  Church  of  England  and  the  Puritans  equally  main 
tained  the  importance  and  necessity  of  the  rite,  and  as 
signed  to  it  these  high  uses.  But  the  Roman  Church 
had  one  supreme  ground  for  its  belief  and  practice  con 
cerning  this  rite,  which  relieved  it,  as  we  shall  see,  of  a 
difficulty  met  by  Protestants,  and  especially  by  the  Puri 
tans,  whose  leading  principle  was  that  only  the  teaching 
and  authority  of  Scripture  gave  sanction  to  faith.  A  can 
did  and  able  divine  of  the  English  Church  before  quoted 
allows  himself  to  express  the  following  positive  and  un 
qualified  statement :  "  Notwithstanding  all  that  has  been 
written  by  learned  men  upon  this  subject,  it  remains  in 
disputable  that  infant  baptism  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament.  No  instance  of  it  is  recorded  there,  no 
allusion  is  made  to  its  effects,  no  directions  are  given  for 
its  administration."2  The  Roman  Church  gives  as  its  first 
reason  for  practising  infant  baptism,  "  a  tradition  which 
the  Church  has  received  from  the  Apostles."  Other  reasons 
are  added.  But  when  the  authority  of  all  traditions  out 
side  of  the  Scriptures  was  repudiated,  and  a  warrant  for 
all  that  was  to  be  accepted  for  faith  and  practice  was  re 
quired  to  be  found  there,  the  way  was  opened  for  a  most 
burning  controversy  on  the  proper  subjects  and  mode  of 
baptism.  Its  importance  and  efficacy  were  in  no  way  di 
minished.  If  the  baptism  of  infants  had  no  warrant  from 
Scripture,  while  baptism  itself  was  an  essential  and  saving 

1  The  Catholic  Christian  Instructed. 

2  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament,  by  Dr.  Jacob,  p.  270. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN    DISCIPLINE.  377 

ordinance,  it  followed  that  the  rite  must  in  mature  years 
be  repeated  for  believers  baptized  in  infancy  who  would 
secure  the  blessing  from  it.  This  repetition  of  the  rite  was 
Anabaptism.  The  term  has  no  significance  now  as  applied 
to  "  Baptists,"  who  not  having  been  baptized  in  infancy 
are  baptized  for  the  first  time,  if  ever,  in  maturer  years, 
when  making  a  Christian  profession. 

The  Puritan  Standards  and  Confessions,  both  in  England 
and  in  her  colonies  here,  recognized  — 

"Baptism  is  a  Sacrament  of  the  New  Testament,  ordained 
by  Jesus  Christ,  not  only  for  the  solemn  Admission  of  the  Party 
baptised  into  the  Visible  Church,  but  also  to  be  unto  him  a  Sign 
and  Seal  of  the  Covenant  of  Grace,  of  his  ingrafting  into  Christ, 
of  Regeneration,  of  Remission  of  Sins,  and  of  his  giving  up  unto 
God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  walk  in  Newness  of  Life.  .  .  .  Dip 
ping  of  the  Person  into  the  Water  is  not  necessary ;  but  Bap 
tism  is  rightly  administered  by  pouring  or  sprinkling  Water  upon 
the  Person.  .  .  .  Not  only  those  that  do  actually  profess  Faith  in, 
and  Obedience  unto  Christ,  but  also  the  Infants  of  one  or  both 
believing  Parents  are  to  be  baptised." 

In  the  Roman  Communion,  all  parents  having  themselves 
been  baptized  in  infancy  were  assumed  to  be  members  of 
the  Church,  so  that  all  their  children,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
were  entitled  to  the  rite.  The  different  principle  and  prac 
tice  adopted  here  —  as  will' be  seen  on  a  future  page  —  oc 
casioned  in  New  England  much  controversy  and  strife,  and 
was  largely  instrumental  in  bringing  discomfiture  on  the 
system.  In  the  Roman  Church,  baptism  is  essential  to 
and  insures  the  salvation  of  the  infant.  The  Westmin 
ster  Confession  made  a  discrimination  here,  as  follows : 

"  Although  it  be  a  great  Sin  to  contemn  or  neglect  this  Ordi 
nance,  yet  Grace  and  Salvation  are  not  so  inseparably  annexed  to 
it,  as  that  no  person  can  be  regenerated  or  saved  without  it,  or 
that  all  that  are  baptised  are  undoubtedly  regenerated.  .  .  .  The 
Sacrament  was  to  be  administered  only  once  to  any  person." 


378  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

The  church  or  congregation  in  which  an  infant  had  been 
baptized,  was  held  through  its  parents  to  have  come  under 
the  obligation  of  an  oversight  and  responsibility  for  the 
child,  and  as  having  reason  to  expect  that  the  child  on 
growing  up  would  complete  its  church  relations  by  accept 
ing  the  covenant  for  full  membership. 

The  lack  of  direct,  positive,  quotable  texts  in  the  New 
Testament  enjoining  the  baptism  of  infants  was  supplied 
mainly  by  ingenious  inferences  and  deductions  from  the 
Scriptures.  It  was  argued  that  children  should  accede 
to  church  privileges  and  responsibilities  in  their  religious 
heritage  through  their  parents,  as  they  acceded  through 
the  same  channel  to  civil  rights  and  privileges.  "  The 
seed  of  Abraham " *  became  partakers  of  the  covenanted 
blessing  through  the  rite  of  circumcision  performed  on 
infant  children.  So  the  Puritans  said,  "  We  infer  that  bap 
tism  is  designed  to  take  the  place  of  circumcision."  The 
affectionate  saying  of  Christ,  u  Suffer  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,"  etc.,  gave  an  encouragement  to  infant  bap 
tism.  It  is  rather  through  the  tender  and  engaging  appeal 
in  these  last  words,  than  from  the  force  of  any  positive 
command  or  a  belief  in  the  necessity  of  the  rite  for  sal 
vation,  that  Christian  parents  now  offer  their  children  in 
baptism  as  a  dedicatory  and  grateful  service,  and  as  recog 
nizing  their  own  obligation  and  purpose  for  the  Christian 
nurture  of  their  children.  Another  inference  was  drawn 
in  support  of  the  Puritan  custom  from  the  mention  in  the 
Acts  and  Epistles  of  the  baptism  of  a  whole  "household" 
when  the  head  of  it  was  the  subject  of  the  rite.  The 
inference  was  that  the  household  included  children. 

It  was  inevitable,  however,  that  when,  church  authority 
being  repudiated,  each  individual,  with  such  ability,  judg 
ment,  and  intelligence  as  he  might  possess,  brought  his  own 
acute  and  conscientious  search  to  his  own  private  inter 
pretation  of  the  Scriptures,  he  should  be  quickened  or 

1  Genesis  xvii.  7. 


THE  BAPTISTS   UNDER  PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  379 

troubled,  stirred  to  questioning  or  protesting,  concerning 
the  significance  of  baptism,  the  subjects  of  the  rite,  and  the 
authority  for  its  administration.  A  vast  number  of  the  in 
numerable  polemical  tractates  of  the  age  succeeding  the 
Reformation  are  filled  either  with  calm,  learned,  and  able 
dealings  with  this  subject,  or  with  the  wild  utterances  of 
enthusiasts  and  fanatics  upon  it. 

It  is  curious  to  note  the  acuteness  used  in  arguments, 
drawn  by  inferences,  to  justify  the  baptism  of  infants  in 
the  lack  of  direct  Scriptural  injunctions.  Thus,  Jesus  had 
bid  his  Apostles  go  teach  and  baptize  all  nations.  Now  for 
an  inference :  — 

"  If  a  man  should  bid  his  servant  go  shear  all  my  sheep  and 
mark  them,  if  that  servant  should  shear  all  his  sheep  and  mark 
them  only  that  he  had  shorn,  and  not  mark  his  Lambs,  because 
he  could  not  shear  them,  doth  that  servant  fulfill  his  Master's 
command  ?  No  more  had  the  Apostles  done  if  they  had  not 
marked  his  Lambs  as  well  as  his  sheep :  although  they  were  not 
capable  of  teaching,  yet  they  were  capable  of  marking  or  baptis 
ing.  Again,  whereas  our  Lord  commandeth,  l  Suffer  little  chil 
dren  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,'  How  properly  can 
an  infant  come  unto  Christ  but  by  Baptism  ?  Repent  they  can 
not,  believe  they  cannot,  as  the  Anabaptists  affirm.  But  by  bap 
tism  they  may  come,  where  the  minister  in  Christ  stead  receiveth 
them  and  blesseth  them."  l 

But  as  if  to  revive  the  dreads  connected  with  the  avowal 
of  Anabaptist  opinions  as  associated  with  the  lawlessness, 
immoralities,  and  extravagances  of  the  old  times  in  Hol 
land  and  Germany,  the  attention  of  the  authorities  of  Mas 
sachusetts  was  drawn  to  the  appearance  and  organization 
of  the  faction  in  Rhode  Island  when  that  Colony  was  the 
harborage  of  "  all  sorts  of  consciences."  Their  diversities, 
eccentricities,  and  individualities  of  opinion  had  a  free  field 
and  license.  Winthrop  writes  during  the  summer  of  1641 : 

1  Pagitt's  Heresiography.  London,  1661.  p.  19.  The  writer  was  of  the 
Church  of  England. 


380  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

"  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  those  of  Aquiday  island  broached  new 
heresies  every  year.  Divers  of  them  turned  professed  anabaptists, 
and  would  not  wear  any  arms,  and  denied  all  magistracy  among 
Christians,  and  maintained  that  there  were  no  churches  since  those 
founded  by  the  apostles  and  evangelists,  nor  could  any  be,  nor  any 
pastors  ordained  nor  seals  administered  but  by  such,  and  that  the 
church  was  to  want  these  all  the  time  she  continued  in  the  wilder 
ness,  as  yet  she  was." J 

Here  was  enough  to  rouse  the  anxious  watchfulness  of 
the  authorities  of  Massachusetts,  to  test  the  tolerance  here 
tofore  allowed  for  variances  of  opinion,  and  to  prepare  the 
way  for  harsh  dealing  with  their  avowal. 

The  variances  of  opinion  on  the  subject  of  infant  bap 
tism  which  presented  themselves  were  the  most  natural, 
and  we  may  add  the  most  reasonable,  of  all  the  factious 
dissensions  which  arose  in  the  Massachusetts  churches. 
Happily,  the  bitterness  and  severity  of  discipline  which 
attended  them  were  of  brief  duration,  while  the  smart  fell 
on  but  few  victims.  According  to  the  Puritan  view  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  furnishing  the  sole  authority  for  all  of  re 
ligious  belief  and  practice,  and  the  means  for  ending  all 
controversies,  the  lack  in  them  of  positive  and  direct  in 
junctions  for  infant  baptism  should  have  prepared  them  for 
these  variances  of  opinion,  and  secured  for  them  a  degree 
of  tolerance.  To  a  certain  extent  this  tolerance  was  al 
lowed  ;  but  it  was  for  little  more  than  private  opinions, 
quietly  and  moderately  expressed.  But  as  the  expectation 
and  requisition  of  accord,  harmony,  and  conformity  in 
avowed  beliefs  and  in  church  observances  became  steadily 
more  rigid  among  magistrates  and  elders  in  the  Colony, 
this  tolerance  was  soon  put  to  a  strain.  Cotton  Mather 
more  than  once  tells  us  that  among  the  first  comers  to 
Massachusetts  were  many  who  held  the  special  tenets  of 
the  Baptists,  and  that  "they  were  as  holy  and  watchful 
and  fruitful  and  heavenly  a  people  as  perhaps  any  in  the 

i  Winthrop,  ii.  38. 


THE  BAPTISTS  UNDER  PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  381 

world."  But  Mather  also,  as  if  to  balance  his  enco 
mium,  quotes  the  opinion  of  one  whom  he  calls  "the  noble 
martyr  Philpot,"  that  the  Anabaptists  "  are  an  inordinate 
kind  of  men,  stirred  up  by  the  Devil,  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Gospel;  having  neither  Scripture  nor  antiquity 
nor  anything  else  for  them  but  lies  and  new  imagina 
tions,  feigning  the  baptism  of  children  to  be  the  Pope's 
commandment."  l 

At  the  Quarterly  Court  at  Salem,  Dec.  14,  1642,  "  The 
Lady  Deborah  Moody,  Mrs.  King,  and  the  wife  of  John 
Tilton  were  presented  for  houldinge  that  the  baptising  of 
infants  is  noe  ordinance  of  God."2  Winthrop  mentions 
this  case  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  Lady  Moodye,  a  wise  and  anciently  religious  woman, 
being  taken  with  the  error  of  denying  baptism  to  infants,  was 
dealt  withal  by  many  of  the  elders  and  others,  and  admonished 
by  the  Church  of  Salem  (whereof  she  was  a  member)  ;  but  persist 
ing  still,  and  to  avoid  further  trouble,  etc.,  she  removed  to  the 
Dutch,  against  the  advice  of  all  her  friends.  Many  others  in 
fected  with  anabaptism  removed  thither  also.  She  was  after 
excommunicated."  8 

Lady  Moody  owned  land  at  Swampscott.  A  neighbor  of 
hers  there,  William  Witter,  next  comes  up  for  discipline 
at  Salem  Court,  Feb.  28, 164|,  - 

"  for  entertaining  that  the  baptism  of  infants  was  sinful,  now 
coming  in  Salem  Court,  answered  humbly  and  confessed  his  Igno 
rance,  and  his  willingness  to  see  Light,  and  (upon  Mr.  Morris, 
our  Elder,  his  speech)  seemed  to  be  staggered,  Inasmuch  that  in 
court  meltinglie  Sentence,  [s^c]  Have  called  our  ordenance  of 
God  a  badge  of  the  whore,  on  some  Lecture  day,  the  next  5th  day 
being  a  public  fast,  To  acknowledge  his  fait,  and  to  ask  Mr. 
Cobbett  forgiveness,  in  saying  he  spoke  against  his  conscience, 
And  enjoined  to  be  heare  next  Court  at  Salem."  4 

1  Magnalia,  Amer.  edit.,  ii.  532.  2  Lewis  and  Newhall,  Lynn,  p.  204. 

8  Winthrop,  ii.  124.  *  Lewis  and  Ne\vhall,  Lynn,  p.  219. 


382  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

But  the  repentance  and  the  sentence  in  his  case  were 
both  ineffective  ;  for,  as  appears  from  the  following  pro 
ceeding  in  the  General  Court,  May  6, 1646,  Witter  had  in 
the  interval  again  been  before  the  Salem  Court :  — 

"  Att  the  Courte  at  Salem,  held  the  18th  of  the  12th  month, 
1645,  William  Witter,  of  Lynn,  was  presented  by  the  grand  jury 
for  saying  that  they  who  stayed  whiles  a  child  is  baptised  doe 
worshipp  the  divell.  Henry  Collins  and  Nath.  West  dealing  with 
him  thereabouts,  he  further  sayd  that  they  who  stayed  at  the 
baptising  of  a  child  did  take  the  name  of  the  Father,  Sonne,  and 
Holy  Gost  in  vayne,  broake  the  Sabaoth,  and  confessed  and  justi- 
fyed  the  former  speech.  The  sentence  of  the  Court  was  an  in 
junction  the  next  Lord's  day,  being  faier,  that  he  make  public 
confession  to  satisfaction  in  the  open  congregation,  at  Lynne,  or 
else  to  answer  it  at  the  next  Generall  Courte ;  and  concerning  his 
opinion,  the  Courte  exprest  their  patience  towards  him,  only  ad 
monishing  him  till  they  see  if  he  continew  obstinate.  The  said 
Witter  not  appearing  here  according  to  order,  itt  is  ordered  that 
the  major  generall  take  order  for  his  appearance  at  the  next  Court 
of  Assistants,  at  Boston,  there  to  answer,  and  to  be  proceeded 
with  according  to  the  meritt  of  his  offence."  1 

There  seems  to  have  been  an  attempt  at  leniency  in 
dealing  with  this  offender,  though  he  had  made  himself  so 
obnoxious,  not  for  holding,  but  for  his  rude  way  of  declar 
ing,  an  opinion. 

The  magistrates  were  persuading  themselves  that  it  was 
becoming  necessary  for  them  to  have  a  law  upon  their 
statute-book  enabling  them,  in  keeping  with  their  conserv 
ative  and  repressive  policy,  to  deal  with  the  extending  and 
aggressive  heresy  of  opposition  to  infant  baptism.  Before 
they  did  so,  however,  we  learn  from  Winthrop  of  the  case 
of  another  individual  offender,  as  follows,  July  5, 1644 :  — 

"  A  poor  man  of  Hingham,  one  Painter,  who  had  lived  at  New 
Haven,  and  at  Rowley  and  Charlestown,  and  had  been  scandalous 

1  Records,  iii.  67,  68. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE. 

and  burdensome  by  his  idle  and  troublesome  behaviour  to  them 
all,  was  now  on  the  sudden  turned  anabaptist,  and  having  a  child 
born,  he  would  not  suffer  his  wife  to  bring  it  to  the  ordinance  of 
baptism,  for  she  was  a  member  of  the  church,  though  himself  were 
not.  Being  presented  for  this,  and  enjoined  to  suffer  the  child  to 
be  baptised,  he  still  refusing,  and  disturbing  the  church,  he  was 
again  brought  to  the  Court,  not  only  for  his  former  contempt,  but 
ulso  for  saying  that  our  baptism  was  antichristian ;  and  in  the 
open  court  he  affirmed  the  same.  Whereupon,  after  much  patience 
and  clear  conviction  of  his  errour,  etc.,  —  because  he  was  very 
poor,  so  as  no  other  but  corporal  punishment  could  be  fastened 
upon  him,  —  he  was  ordered  to  be  whipped,  not  for  his  opinion, 
but  for  his  reproaching  the  Lord's  ordinance,  and  for  his  bold  and 
evil  behaviour  both  at  home  and  in  the  Court.  He  endured  his 
punishment  with  much  obstinacy,  and  when  he  was  loosed  he  said, 
boastingly,  that  God  had  marvellously  assisted  him.  Whereupon, 
two  or  three  honest  men,  his  neighbours,  affirmed  before  all  the 
company  that  he  was  of  very  loose  behaviour  at  home,  and  given 
much  to  lying  and  idleness,  etc.  Nor  had  he  any  great  occasion 
to  gather  God's  assistance  from  his  stillness  under  the  punishment, 
which  was  but  moderate,  for  divers  notorious  malefactors  had 
showed  the  like,  and  one  the  same  court."  1 

We  may  imagine  that  we  hear  the  culprit,  released  from 
his  scourging,  boastfully  cry  out,  in  more  reverent  phrase, 
the  same  sentiment  which  a  plucky  boy  after  a  whipping 
expresses  in  the  defiance,  —  "  Pooh !  you  have  not  hurt  me 
much ! "  We  note  that  Winthrop  says,  guardedly,  that 
Painter  was  not  scourged  for  "his  opinion,"  but  for  dis 
turbing  the  church  proceedings,  and  for  general  misde 
meanor.  We  shall  find  an  attempt  made  at  drawing  the 
same  distinction  in  the  law  now  to  be  copied.  This  was 
drafted  by  the  magistrates,  and  then  submitted  to  the  eld 
ers,  "  who  approved  of  it  with  some  mitigations,  and  being 
voted  and  sent  to  the  deputies,  it  was  after  published."  2 

The  allowance  and  tolerance  'of  what  were  viewed  as 
erroneous  opinions  on  infant  baptism,  which  has  been 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  175.  2  ibid.,  ii.  174. 


384  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

before  referred  to,  as  granted  to  individuals,  on  implied 
conditions  of  moderation  or  silence,  were  found  to  be  in 
sufficient  for  protection  against  the  working  and  insidious 
spread  of  the  heresy.  The  Court  therefore,  in  its  watch 
fulness  and  presumed  responsibility  for  protecting  its  con 
stituency,  passed  the  following  law,  Nov.  13,  1644 :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  experience  hath  plentifully  and  often  proved 
that  since  the  first  arising  of  the  Anabaptists,  about  a  hundred 
years  since,  they  have  been  the  incendiaries  of  commonwealths, 
and  the  infectors  of  persons  in  main  matters  of  religion,  and  the 
troublers  of  churches  in  all  places  where  they  have  bene,  and  that 
they  who  have  held  the  baptising  of  infants  unlawfull  have  usually 
held  other  errors  or  heresies  together  therewith,  though  they  have 
(as  other  hereticks  use  to  do)  concealed  the  same  till  they  spied 
out  a  fit  advantage  arid  opportunity  to  vent  them,  by  way  of  ques 
tion  or  scruple,  and  whereas  divers  of  this  kind  have,  since  our 
coming  into  New  England,  appeared  amongst/  ourselves,  some 
whereof  have  (as  others  before  them)  denied  the  ordinance  of 
magistracy,  and  the  lawfulness  of  making  warr,  and  others  the 
lawfulness  of  magistrates,  and  their  inspection  into  any  breach  of 
the  first  table,  which  opinions,  if  they  should  be  connived  at  by 
us,  are  like  to  be  increased  amongst  us,  and  so  must  necessarily 
bring  guilt  upon  us,  infection  and  trouble  to  the  churches,  and 
hazard  to  the  whole  commonwealth, 

"  It  is  ordered  and  agreed,  that  if  any  person  or  persons  within 
this  jurisdiction  shall  either  openly  condemne  or  oppose  the  bap 
tising  of  infants,  or  go  about  secretly  to  seduce  others  from  the 
approbation  or  use  thereof,  or  shall  purposely  depart  the  congre 
gation  at  the  administration  of  the  ordinance,  or  shall  deny  the 
ordinance  of  magistracy,  or  their  lawful  right  or  authority  to  make 
warr,  or  to  punish  the  outward  breaches  of  the  first  table,  and  shall 
appear  to  the  Court  wilfully  and  obstinately  to  continue  therein 
after  due  time  and  meanes  of  conviction,  every  such  person  or 
persons  shalbe  sentenced  to  banishment."  l 

Several  matters  for  passing  remark  are  suggested  by  the 
terms  of  this  law.  We  have  already  noted  with  what  an 

1  Records,  ii.  85. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  385 

obstinate  and  apparently  perverse  resolution  a  single  re 
ligious  opinion  or  belief,  seemingly  held  in  sincerity,  and 
peacefully,  was  associated  with,  and  made  accountable  for, 
any  extravagances  and  dangerous  practices,  threatening 
the  fabric  or  good  order  of  society,  or  running  into  disso 
luteness  and  immorality,  which  had  accompanied  the  first 
adoption  or  utterance  of  the  heresy.  The  abominations  of 
impiety,  and  the  outrages  of  decency,  and  the  reckless 
practices  which  had  accompanied  the  wild  enthusiasm  and 
fanaticism  of  those  first  known  as  Antinomians  and  Ana 
baptists,  had  attached  to  them  for  a  century ;  and  any  one 
who  avowed  the  central  matter  of  the  heresy  was  suspected 
of  at  least  secretly  tending  to  all  the  follies  and  vices  that 
ever  accompanied  it.  So  the  terms  of  the  law  we  have 
copied  intimate  that  those  who  object  to  infant  baptism 
have  silently  in  reserve  many  other  and  more  dangerous 
errors,  which  they  are  watching  an  opportunity  to  insinu 
ate  when  they  can  spy  out  a  fit  advantage.  We  have  seen 
how  "  inferences  "  supposed  to  be  fairly  drawn  from  opin 
ions  avowed  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  her  "  revelations," 
were  all  the  entailed  burden  from  previous  offenders.  An 
other  point  is  suggestive  here.  When  Winslow  was  acting 
as  agent  and  defender  of  the  Colony  in  England  from  im 
putations  urged  against  it  for  its  severity  in  this  and  other 
of  its  laws,  he  pleaded  that  many  among  them  known  to 
hold  heretical  or  objectionable  opinions  were  unmolested  if 
they  kept  them  quietly  and  unaggressively  to  themselves, 
without  raising  dispute  or  dissensions.  But  such  individu 
alities  of  opinion  and  scruples  of  conscience  were  not  to  be 
restrained  from  a  free  and  earnest  utterance  by  the  tongues 
of  men  and  women  of  the  temper  trained  by  Puritanism. 
.  On  many  subjects  that  exercised  them,  they  could  relieve 
their  own  uneasiness  only  by  communicating  it  to  others 
around  them.  The  unintermitted  restating  and  rehearing 
of  the  matters  of  creed  and  covenant  could  be  kept  from 
becoming  intolerable  only  by  more  than  occasional  ven- 

25 


386  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

tures  of  questioning  and  doubting.  Of  course,  the  Court 
could  not  presume  to  forbid  the  holding  of  certain  opin 
ions,  nor  perhaps  would  it  censure  their  utterance  in  pri 
vate  intercourse ;  but  if  there  was  the  scent  of  mischief  in 
them,  they  were  not  to  be  ventilated  among  neighbors,  but 
referred  to  the  elders,  or  cautiously  handled  in  the  meet 
ings  of  church  members  for  discipline.  Even  the  silent 
protest  of  leaving  the  assembly  when  an  infant  was  pre 
sented  for  baptism  was  now  forbidden. 

A  year  after  the  passage  of  this  law  we  have  an  intima 
tion  of  the  discontent  it  had  excited,  in  the  following  action 
of  the  Court,  Oct.  18,  1645  :  — 

"  Upon  a  petition  of  divers  persons,  for  consideration  of  the  law 
about  new-comers  not  staying  above  three  *weeks  without  licence, 
and  the  law  against  Anabaptists,  the  Court  hath  voted  that  the 
laws  mentioned  should  not  be  altered  at  ajl,  nor  explained."  1 

But  there  were  others  who  favored  the  law,  as  appears 
from  the  action  of  the  Court,  May  6,  1646,  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  petition  of  divers  of  Dorchester,  Roxberry,  etc.,  to  the 
number  of  78,  for  the  continuance  of  such  orders,  without  abroga 
tion  or  weakening,  as  are  in  force  against  Anabaptists,  and  other 
erronios  persons,  where  by  to  hinder  the  spreading  or  divulging  of 
their  errors,  is  granted."  2 

One  of  the  deputies  of  the  Court  from  Dover,  Edward 
Starbuck,  had  been  fined  for  three  weeks'  absence.  The 
Court  in  October,  1648  - 

"  being  informed  of  great  misdemeanor  committed  by  Edward  Star- 
buck,  of  Dover,  with  profession  of  Anabaptistry,  for  which  he 
is  to  be  proceeded  against  at  the  next  Courte  of  Assistants  if  evi 
dence  can  be  prepared  by  that  time,"  3 

on  account  of  the  season  and  the  distance,  appointed  two 
commissioners  to  send  for  witnesses  and  sworn  testimony. 
We  hear  no  more  of  this  case. 

1  Records,  ii.  HI.  2  Ibid.,  ii.  149.  8  Ibid.,  ii.  253. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  387 

Recognizing  the  rigidity  of  discipline  which  the  Court 
had  adopted  as  its  rule  in  matters  concerning  other  persons' 
consciences,  though  in  our  judgments  so  mistaken  and  op 
pressive,  we  cannot  but  recognize  also  its  persistency  as 
shown  in  meddling  with  matters  that  alarmed  them  beyond 
their  jurisdiction,  which  threatened  mischief  for  Massachu 
setts.  This  is  strikingly  exhibited  in  the  following  letter 
addressed  by  the  Court  in  October,  1649,  to  the  Plymouth 
authorities.  The  letter  will  explain  itself  :  - 

"  HONORED  AND  BELOVED  BRETHEREN,  —  Wee  have  heard 
heeretofore  of  diverse  Annabaptists,  arisen  up  in  your  jurisdiction, 
and  connived  at ;  but  being  but  few,  wee  well  hoped  that  it  might 
have  pleased  God,  by  the  endeavors  of  yourselves  and  the  faithful 
elders  with  you,  to  have  reduced  such  erring  men  again  into  the 
right  way.  But  now,  to  our  great  greife,  wee  are  credibly  in 
formed  that  your  patient  bearing  with  such  men  hath  produced 
another  effect,  namely,  the  multiplying  and  increasing  of  the  same 
errors,  and  wee  feare  may  be  of  other  errors  also,  if  timely  care  be 
not  taken  to  suppresse  the  same.  Perticularly  wee  understand  that 
within  this  few  weekes  there  have  been  at  Sea  Cunke  thirteene  or 
fowerteene  persons  rebaptized  (a  swift  progress  in  one  tonne),  yett 
wee  heare  not  of  any  effectual  restriction  is  entended  thereabouts. 
Lett  it  not,  wee  pray  you,  seeine  presumption  in  us  to  mind  you 
heereof,  nor  that  wee  earnestly  intreate  you  to  take  care  as  well 
of  the  suppressing  of  errors  as  of  the  maintenance  of  truth,  God 
aequally  requiring  the  performance  of  both  at  the  hands  of  Chris 
tian  magistrates,  but  rather  that  you  will  consider  our  interest  is 
concerned  therein.  The  infection  of  such  diseases  being  so  neere 
are  likely  to  spread  into  our  jurisdiction  ;  tune  tua  res  agitur paries 
cum  proximus  ardet.  Wee  are  united  by  confoedaracy,  by  faith, 
by  neighbourhood,  by  fellowship  in  our  sufferings  as  exiles,  and  by 
other  Christian  bonds,  and  wee  hope  neither  Sathan  nor  any  of  his 
instruments  shall  by  theis  or  any  other  errors  disunite  us,  and  that 
wee  shall  never  have  cause  to  repent  us  of  our  so  neere  conjunc 
tion  with  you,  but  that  wee  shall  both  so  aequally  and  zealously 
uphold  all  the  truths  of  God  revealed,  that  wee  may  render  a  com 
fortable  accompt  to  Him  that  hath  sett  us  in  our  places,  and 


388  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

betrusted  us  with  the  keeping  of  both  tables,  of  which  well  hoping, 
wee  cease  your  farther  trouble,  and  rest,  Your  very  loving  Freinds 
and  Bretheren."  l 

If  there  is  bigotry,  there  is  something  other  and  better 
than  bigotry  in  that  earnest  and  tender  appeal  to  fellow- 
exiles  and  fellow-believers  in  behalf  of  beliefs  and  principles 
supremely  precious  to  them.  The  dread  of  new  dissensions 
and  divisions  was  for  a  long  period  the  motive  for  stiffening, 
instead  of  prompting  a  relaxation  of,  the  attempt  to  secure 
accord  of  opinion  from  "  tender  consciences."  Massachu 
setts  was  aggrieved  at  the  very  slight  response  made  by 
Plymouth  to  the  remonstrance  and  appeal.  But  an  oppor 
tunity  was  now  to  present  itself  in  which  the  authorities 
would  visit  their  discipline  upon  the  prime  agent  in  the 
grievance  which  had  drawn  forth  the  above  letter.  This 
was  one  Obadiah  Holmes.  He  had  joined  the  Salem  church 
on  his  coming  hither,  and  being  dismissed  after  .seven  years 
of  membership,  in  1645,  had  become  a  member  of  the  Con 
gregational  Church  at  Seekonk,  or  Rehoboth,  the  pastor  of 
which,  an  exiled  Church  clergyman,  Samuel  Newman,  edited 
an  edition  of  Clement  Cotton's  Concordance  of  the  Bible. 
Some  dissension  arising  in  the  church,  Holmes  with  some 
others  seceded,  and  set  up  a  Baptist  Society,  probably  hav 
ing  procured  baptism  from  Dr.  John  Clarke,  pastor  of  the 
Baptist  Church  in  Newport.  In  response  to  the  letter  from 
Massachusetts,  Holmes  was  summoned  by  Plymouth  Court 
on  June  4,  1650,  and  presented  Oct.  2,  1650  ;  but  he  docs 
not  appear  to  have  been  sentenced.  Dr.  Clarke,  a  man 
of  great  abilities  and  of  a  calm  spirit  and  fine  character, 
after  having  practised  as  a  physician  in  London,  had  come 
to  Boston  just  at  the  height  of  the  strife  with  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson,  and  marvelling  that  the  excited  parties  could  not 
harmonize  their  variances,  had  moved  to  Rhode  Island, 
where  at  Newport  he  founded  a  Baptist  Church,  in  1644. 

1  Records,  iii.  174. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN    DISCIPLINE.  389 

He  was  also  highly  esteemed  as  a  physician,  and  as  Treas 
urer  and  Assistant  of  the  Colony.  Of  a  visit  made  by  him 
to  Massachusetts,  and  the  treatment. he  received  there,  we 
have  an  account  from  his  own  pen,  temperately  but  forcibly 
related  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  111  Newes  from  New  Eng 
land,  etc.,"  published  in  London  in  1652.1  Backus,  the 
excellent  historian  of  the  Baptists,  says  that  Clarke  the 
pastor,  with  two  members  of  the  church,  Holmes  and  John 
Crandall,  were  sent  here  by  it  on  an  errand  of  religious 
sympathy  to  William  Witter,  already  under  our  notice,  and 
that  he  was  a  member  of  their  church.  Clarke  does  not 
mention  this  latter  particular,  nor  does  it  appear  how  it 
could  have  been  so.  Witter  was  infirm  and  nearly  if  not 
quite  blind.  His  membership  may  have  been  through 
sympathy,  correspondence,  and  recognition. 

We  will  now  follow  Dr.  Clarke's  narrative,  premising 
that  he  and  his  companions  were  alike  obnoxious  to  Mas 
sachusetts.  Clarke  sympathized  fully  in  the  conviction  of 
Roger  Williams  that  the  magistrate  had  no  function  in 
matters  of  religious  opinion,  belief,  or  observance.  He 
said,  "  A  sword  of  steel  cannot  come  near  or  touch  the 
spirit  or  mind  of  man ; "  and  from  the  common  armory 
of  Scripture  for  both  sides  in  all  controversies,  quoted 
the  words  of  Jesus  that  the  tares  were  not  to  be  plucked 
out,  but  left  patiently  to  grow  with  the  grain.  Clarke 
justifies  the  publishing  his  narrative  on  the  ground  that 
an  opportunity  for  open  debate  and  argument  having  been 
offered,  was  afterward  denied  to  him.  He  had  a  strong 
ground  for  rebuking  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts  for 
their  compelling  non-church-members  and  the  unwilling 
to  attend  upon  their  set  services,  and  forbidding  them  to 
meet  in  other  congenial  private  assemblies.  He  objects 
also  that  their  churches  were  not  "  called  together  at  the 
command  of  the  Lord,"  as  at  first,  but  by  authority  or  allow 
ance  of  the  magistrates.  He  says  he  arrived  in  Boston,  on 

1  This  is  reprinted  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  4th  series,  vol.  ii. 


390  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

his  first  coming,  in  November,  1637,  and  being  pained  at 
the  controversy  about  the  two  Covenants  of  Works  and 
Grace,  moved  away  for  quiet  and  edification.  On  his  visit 
with  his  companions  on  their  errand  of  sympathy,  July 
19,  1651,  "  we  lodged  at  a  Blind  man's  house,  by  name 
William  Witter."  The  next  day  was  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  when,  "  not  having  freedom  in  our  Spirits  for  want 
of  a  clear  Call  from  God  to  goe  unto  the  Publick  Assem- 
blie,"  two  miles  distant,  at  Lynn*  to  declare  their  minds 
there,  they  held  a  service  at  the  house  where  they  lodged. 
Clarke  says  that  four  or  five  strangers  came  in  unexpect 
edly  midway  in  the  services,  and  remained.  This  presence 
of  outsiders,  as  we  shall  see,  aggravated  the  charges  against 
Clarke.  The  fact  of  the  presence  of  the  party  must  have 
been  noised  abroad  ;  for  while  Clarke  was  preaching,  two 
constables  came  in  and  served  a  magistrate's  warrant  for 
their  arrest  and  presentment  the  next  day.  The  constables 
being  politely  invited  to  listen  till  the  exercises  were  closed, 
declined,  and  took  the  three  to  the  ordinary,  or  ale-house. 
After  dinner  the  officers  proposed  to  take  them  to  the  place 
of  worship,  though  Clarke  warned  them  that  if  forced  there 
they  should  in  the  meeting  "  declare  dissent  both  by  word 
and  gesture."  On  entering  the  meeting,  the  congregation 
were  uncovered  and  at  prayer.  Clarke  says,  "  At  my  first 
stepping  over  the  threshold,  I  unveiled  myself,  civilly  saluted 
them,  turned  into  the  seat  I  was  appointed  to,  put  on  my 
hat  again,  and  so  sat  down,  opened  my  Book,  and  fell  to 
reading."  The  constable  being  ordered  by  the  magistrate 
to  remove  Clarke's  hat,  did  so.  After  the  services  ended, 
Clarke  stood  up,  civilly  asking  if  as  a  stranger  he  might 
propose  a  few  things  to  the  congregation,  and  waited  a 
courteous  reply.  The  pastor  asked  him  if  he  was  a  mem 
ber  of  a  church,  etc.  Before  he  could  answer,  Mr.  Bridges, 
the  magistrate,  said  that  if  the  congregation  permitted  he 
should  be  allowed,  but  not  to  make  objections  to  what 
had  been  delivered.  Clarke  replied  that  he  did  not  in- 


THE  BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  391 

tend  to  make  such  objections,  but  simply  to  explain  his 
gesture,  showing  lack  of  sympathy  in  coming  into  the 
Assembly,  u  as  they  were  strangers  to  each  other's  inward 
standing  with  respect  to  God,  and  so  cannot  conjoyn 
act  in  Faith.  And  in  the  second  place,  I  could  not 
judge  that  you  are  gathered  together,  and  walk  according 
to  the  visible  order  of  our  Lord."  Mr.  Bridges  stopped 
him  there,  saying  that  he  had  spoken  that  for  which  he 
must  answer.  The  visitors  were  carried  to  the  ordinary, 
"  watched  over  that  night  as  Theeves  and  Robbers,"  and 
next  morning  Mr.  Bridges  sent  them  by  complaint  to  Boston 
prison.  It  would  appear,  from  the  charges  in  their  sentence 
afterward,  as  if  they  had  held  a  meeting  again  at  Witter's 
on  Monday  morning.  The  mittimus  charged  them  with 
holding  a  private  meeting  on  the  Lord's  Day,  exercising 
among  themselves,  joined  by  some  of  the  town's  people,  dis 
turbing  and  contemning  the  public  meeting,  and  "  for  sus- 
pition  of  having  their  hands  in  the  re-baptising  of  one  or 
•  more  among  us."  On  being  brought  to  trial  at  the  County 
Court,  July  31,  Clarke  denied  the  name  of  Anabaptist,  with 
which  he  was  charged ;  for  though  admitting  that  he  had 
baptized  many,  he  would  not  admit  that  it  was  a  rebaptism, 
because  the  former  rite  for  them  was  null.  The  offences 
for  which  he  was  sentenced  were,  for  preaching  in  a  private 
house  on  the  Lord's  Day  where  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town  were  gathered ;  for  keeping  on  his  hat  during 
prayer  in  the  public  assembly,  and  disturbing  and  profess 
ing  against  the  church ;  and  the  next  day,  in  contempt  of 
authority,  and  while  in  custody  of  the  law,  did  again  meet 
at  Witter's  house,  and  there  "  administer  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Supper  to  one  excommunicate  person,  to  another  under 
admonition,  and  to  another  that  was  an  inhabitant  of  Lynn, 
and  not  in  fellowship  with  any  church."  Other  offences 
in  Court  were,  his  adroit  denial  of  having  rebaptized  some 
who  as  infants  had  shared  the  rite,  and  his  rejecting  infant 
baptism,  and  the  ordinances  and  ministers,  as  nullities. 


392  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

He  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty  pounds,  or  give 
securities  for  it  till  the  first  day  of  the  next  Court,  remain- 
ing  in  prison  till  then,  "  or  else  to  be  well  whipt."  Holmes 
was  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  thirty  pounds,  and  Crandall  of 
five,  with  the  same  alternative  of  being  "  well  whipt." 
Clarke  then  asked  if  he  might  speak  to  the  Court,  alleging 
a  promise  made  to  him  by  Mr.  Bridges  that  he  should 
have  that  liberty.  This  being  allowed,  Clarke  asked,  as  a 
stranger,  to  see  the  law  by  which  he  had  been  adjudged, 
quoting  their  own  law  warranting  his  demand.  The  Gov 
ernor,  Endicott,  here 

"  being  somewhat  transported,  broke  forth,  and  told  me  I  had 
deserved  death,  and  said  he  would  not  have  such  trash  brought 
into  their  jurisdiction  ;  moreover,  he  said,  you  go  up  and  down, 
and  secretly  insinuate  into  those  that  are  weak ;  but  you  cannot 
maintain  it  before  our  Ministers  :  you  may  try  and  discourse  or 
dispute  with  them,"  etc. 

Though  he  was  at  once  hurried  off  by  the  jailer,  Clarke 
rightfully  improved  this  taunt  and  challenge,  by  writing 
from  his  prison  the  next  day  to  the  Court,  proposing  to 
dispute  with  the  ministers,  and  asking  that  a  time  be  fixed 
for  it.  There  was  some  playing  fast  and  loose  by  the 
Court  in  the  matter,  the  dispute  being  promised  at  a  set 
time,  and  then  by  pretexts  deferred.  Clarke  was  told  that 
he  was  not  sentenced  "  for  judgement  or  conscience,  but 
for  matter  of  fact  and  practice."  But  Clarke  prepared 
his  statement  and  propositions,  and  got  them  before  one  of 
the  magistrates.  Had  he  been  permitted  a  fair  field,  those 
who  coped  with  him  would  have  needed  to  be  keen  and 
able.  But  the  keeper  of  the  prison  received  on  the  lltli 
of  August  an  order  for  his  release.  His  fine  had  been  paid 
for  him  by  some  friends  without  his  approval.  The  sincere 
man  was  sorely  troubled  that  the  proposed  disputation,  for 
which  he  says  the  expectation  of  the  country  was  greatly 
raised,  was  frustrated.  So  he  wrote  at  once  before  leaving 


THE    BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  393 

the  prison  a  manifesto,  expressing  his  regret  that  his  fine 
had  been  paid,  and  his  readiness  still  to  hold  the  disputa 
tion.  The  next  day  being  Commencement  at  Cambridge, 
it  was  rumored  that  Cotton  had  been  selected  to  dispute 
with  him.  This  highly  pleased  Clarke,  because  he  regarded 
Cotton  "  as  being  the  inventor  and  supporter  of  that  way, 
in  these  parts,  wherein  they  walk."  But  the  Governor, 
deputy,  and  three  of  the  magistrates  here  interposed. 
They,  by  a  letter  to  Clarke,  charged  him  with  misreport- 
ing  the  fact.  He  had  not  been  promised,  and  could  not 
have,  a  public  disputation.  It  was  to  be  private,  and  would 
still  be  allowed  on  matters  propounded  by  Clarke,  with  a 
single  elder,  and  before  a  moderator,  Clarke  to  be  harm 
less  from  civil  process.  He  answered  the  letter  from  the 
prison,  August  14,  insisting  that  he  had  represented  truly 
the  promise  made  to  him  in  the  Court  for  a  public  dispute, 
for  which  he  was  still  ready,  but  declined  a  private  debate. 
The  magistrates  were  doubtless  wise  on  their  own  side  in 
avoiding  the  risks  from  u  the  infection  "  of  the  proscribed 
opinions  which  would  inevitably  have  attended  any  public 
discussion.  It  was  well  known  to  them  that  very  many  of 
the  community  alike  in  the  larger  towns  and  in  every  rural 
settlement  were  as  inflammable  as  tow  when  listening  to 
utterances  involving  novelties  of  opinion.  The  points  con 
tested  in  the  controversy  about 'the  proper  subjects  and 
method  of  baptism  as  the  initiative  rite  of  Christian  dis- 
cipleship,  were  more  intelligible  to  the  people  in  general 
than  were  the  abstruse  and  perplexing  abstractions  of  the 
Antinomian  controversy.  Matters  of  variance  were  to  be 
suppressed,  if  possible,  by  strict  measures  rather  than  by 
fair  and  free  debate.  Some  years  afterward,  on  April  15, 
1668,  a  public  disputation  was  held  by  ministers  in  Boston, 
represented  by  Whiting  and  Cobbett,  with  the  defenders  of 
Baptist  principles. 

Dr.  Clarke,  burdened  by  the  sense  of  the  inhospitality 
and  indignity  of  his  treatment,  and  still  more  by  his  hav- 


394  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

ing  been  denied  the  much  coveted  opportunity  of  defending 
his  opinions,  was  called  by  his  many  responsibilities  to 
family,  friends,  and  public  offices,  to  return  to  Newport. 
Holmes,  the  most  obnoxious  of  all  the  intruders,  suffered 
the  sentence  of  whipping.  The  thirty  stripes  laid  upon  his 
bared  body  at  the  post,  he  says  were  severely  inflicted  by 
the  officers,  but  through  the  fervor  and  constancy  gra 
ciously  granted  to  him,  "  he  told  the  Magistrates,  you  have 
struck  me  as  with  Roses."  Two  of  the  spectators,  who, 
after  the  punishment,  went  up  to  him  to  take  his  hand 
and  express  sympathy,  were  fined  for  so  doing.  The  friend 
for  whom  these  sufferers  were  brought  under  the  ordeal, 
William  Witter,  was  presented  at  Salem  Court,  Nov.  27, 
1651,  "  for  neglecting  discourses,  and  being  rebaptized."  1 

One  who,  in  rehearsing  the  early  history  of  Massachu 
setts,  has  set  to  himself  the  purpose  of  repressing  the 
utterances  of  regret,  reproach,  or  indignation,  for  the  se 
verities  of  the  Puritan  rule,  referring  them  all  to  a  loy 
alty  to  their  austere  principles,  will  often  find  that  purpose 
put  to  a  sharp  trial.  Most  of  the  sufferers  by  these  aus 
terities,  besides  offering  degrees  of  provocation,  had  a  vigor 
of  self-assertion  and  solaces  of  their  own  to  support  them. 
Their  spirits  were  not  broken,  nor  could  they  complain 
that,  having  rendered  some  form  of  valuable  service  to  the 
community,  they  had  received  only  wrong  and  ingratitude 
in  return.  The  treatment  visited  upon  Henry  Dunster, 
the  first  President  of  Harvard  College,  for  his  avowed  re 
jection  of  infant  baptism,  stands  in  many  respects  as  a 
special  and  peculiar  illustration  of  the  sternness  of  the 
Puritan  rule.  But  while  our  sympathies  can  hardly  fail 
to  be  warmly  engaged  on  his  side  in  his  painful  experience, 
we  must  hesitate  whether  to  visit  our  indignation  on  those 
who  so  harshly  dealt  with  him,  or  to  recognize  their  sturdy 
consistency  with  their  own  resolve  to  enforce  impartially 
their  own  intolerant  principles.  In  the  case  now  to  be 

1  Lewis  and  Newhall,  Lynn,  p.  231. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  395 

rehearsed  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  Dunster  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  Puritan  system,  and  its  most  trusted 
teacher,  except  on  a  single  point  of  doctrine. 

Dunster  presents  himself  to  us  as  one  of  the  most  en 
gaging,  lovable,  and  eminently  serviceable  men  in  our 
earliest  annals.  We  have  learned  to  reiterate,  with  all 
grateful  regard  and  appreciation,  our  high  tributes  of  re 
spect  to  the  founders  of  our  State  for  their  noble  purposes 
in  providing  for  a  seat  of  learning  in  the  first  years  of 
their  wilderness  life.  The  glory  of  our  rich  and  revered 
University,  the  fountain  of  so  much  of  blessing  and  honor 
to  us,  the  favored  deposit  of  our  generosity  and  munifi 
cence,  reflects  back  upon  those  who,  with  a  single  view  to 
the  welfare  of  their  posterity,  laid  its  foundations  in  the 
days  of  their  extremest  struggles  and  poverty.  But  to 
one  man,  its  first  President,  we  must  assign  the  supreme 
tribute  of  our  homage,  for  his  eminent  ability,  his  earnest 
devotion,  and  his  wise  administration,  continued  through 
fourteen  years,  in  the  organization  of  the  College,  in  devis 
ing  all  practical  plans  for  its  studies  and  discipline,  and  in 
providing  the  method  of  its  government  and  oversight,  which 
in  its  best  elements  continues  unchanged  to  this  day. 

The  birthplace  and  the  age  of  Dunster  have  not  been 
positively  certified  to  us.  He  received  his  two  academic 
degrees  at  Magdalene  College,  Oxford,  1630-34.  With  the 
repute  of  eminent  scholarship  and  an  attractive  character, 
he  was  warmly  welcomed,  on  his  arrival  in  Boston  in  1640, 
by  many  of  his  former  personal  acquaintances  and  friends 
here.  His  coming,  with  the  abilities  and  virtues  which  he 
brought  with  him,  was  most  opportune  for  the  Colony.  The 
infant  college,  then  but  a  school  starting  with  a  promise 
for  its  future,  had  been  for  two  years  committed  to  the 
charge  of  a  most  unworthy  person  as  its  head,  and  he  had 
been  summarily  displaced  in  disgrace.  Dunster  was  in 
ducted  as  President,  Aug.  27, 1640.  He  became  a  member 
of  the  church  in  Cambridge  under  the  pastorship  of  Shepard, 


396  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

who  died  Aug.  25,  1649.  In  the  relation  of  Dunster's  re 
ligious  experience  on  his  admission  to  the  church,  we  find 
an  intimation  of  his  views  on  a  subject  which  had  evidently 
been  exercising  his  mind,  and  about  which  a  subsequent 
change  of  opinion  was  to  cause  him  much  hard  experience. 
He  said,  "  There  is  something  concerning  sprinkling  in 
Scripture,  hence  not  offended  when  it  is  used."  Dunster 
supplied  the  desk  with  great  acceptance  after  the  deatli 
of  Shepard  till  the  induction  of  Mitchell,  Aug.  21,  1650. 
Mitchell  had  been  brought  here  as  a  youth,  and  had  grad 
uated  under  Dunster's  presidency  in  1647.  The  pupil  was 
soon,  as  pastor,  put  into  embarrassing  relations  with  his 
honored  teacher.  Dunster,  in  his  preaching,  had  often  de 
clared  his  disapproval  of  infant  baptism.  On  the  birth  of 
one  of  his  own  children  in  1653,  he  forbore  to  present  it 
for  the  rite,  after  the  usual  custom,  in  the  meeting-house. 
There  was  much  excited  feeling  in  the  church,  and  Dunster 
was  earnestly  advised  to  keep  his  opinions  to  himself.  The 
young  pastor  pleaded  for  moderation  and  delay,  but  was 
urged  on  by  others  to  the  usual  method  of  discipline.  It 
was  an  embarrassing  office  for  him,  as  in  gravity,  learning, 
and  earnest  but  calm  moderation  in  argument,  the  Presi 
dent  was  more  than  his  match.  Mitchell  tried  his  utmost 
in  a  difficult  work.  He  found  scruples  and  misgivings  aris 
ing  in  his  own  mind,  as  consequent  upon  the  strong  reason 
ing  of  Dunster,  though  he  himself  referred  them  to  the 
promptings  of  the  Evil  One.  Burdened  night  and  day  by 
the  difficulty  of  the  office  he  had  undertaken,  he  was  afraid 
of  repeating  his  visits  to  Dunster,  as  he  "  found  a  venom 
and  poison  in  his  insinuations  and  discourses  against  Paedo- 
baptism."  Finding  many  of  his  own  congregation  halting 
and  faltering  on  the  subject,  he  preached  many  sermons 
defending  infant  baptism. 

Early  in  1654  the  magistrates  wrote  to  the  ministers 
about  the  risk  to  the  country  and  the  college  in  this  dis 
sension,  asking  them  to  consider  the  matter  and  advise 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  397 

them  what  to  do  in  the  case.  Accordingly,  in  February, 
nine  of  the  ministers,  two  ruling  elders,  and  Dunster  met  in 
a  conference  at  Boston.1  Dunster  maintained  the  proposi 
tion,  —  "  visible  believers  only  should  be  baptised."  Norton 
granted  the  proposition,  but  added  the  strange  corollary, 
that  "  Infants  of  believing  parents  in  church  state  are  visi 
ble  believers."  This  Dunster  denied  ;  but  with  singular 
sweetness  of  pleading  he  said  that  infants  were  in  no  dan 
ger,  as  Christ  gave  them  "  a  nearer  access  unto  him  and  a 
nearer  acceptance  with  him  than  children  under  the  law." 
The  aptness  of  this  remark  was  in  its  meeting  the  notion 
of  some  of  the  elders,  that  infant  baptism  corresponded  to 
circumcision  under  the  law.  Dunster  then  advanced  this 
strong  assertion,  "  All  instituted  Gospel  worship  hath  some 
express  word  of  Scripture.  But  Paedobaptisin  hath  none." 
The  General  Court  had  already  passed  an  order  in  August, 
1653,  "  that  every  person  that  shall  publish  and  maintain 
any  hoethrodoxe  and  erroneous  doctrine  shalbe  liable  to 
be  quaestioned  and  censured  by  the  County  Court  where  he 
liveth,  according  to  the  merrit  of  his  offence."  2  And  now, 
the  ministerial  conference  having  failed  of  its  object,  the 
Court,  in  May,  1654,  passed  the  following  :- 

"  Forasmuch  as  it  greatly  concerns  the  welfare  of  this  country  that 
the  youth  thereof  be  educated,  not  only  in  good  literature  but  sound 
doctrine,  this  Court  doth  therefore  commend  it  to  the  serious  con 
sideration  and  speciall  care  of  the  officers  of  the  colledge  and  the 
selectmen  in  the  severall  townes,  not  to  admitt  or  suffer  any  such  to 
be  contynued  in  the  office  or  place  of  teaching,  educating,  or  instruct 
ing  of  youth  or  child  in  the  colledge  or  schooles,  that  have  manifested 
themselves  unsound  in  the  fayth  or  scandelous  in  theire  lives,  and 
not  giveing  due  satisfaction  according  to  the  rules  of  Christ." 8 

Dunster  took  the  broad  hint  thus  cast  toward  him,  and 
sent  in  .his  resignation  as  President,  to  the  Court,  through 

1  The  manuscript  containing  the  minutes  of  the  conference  is  in  the  cabi 
net  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

2  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  151.  8'lMd.,  iii.  343,  344. 


398  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

the  Overseers,  dated  June  10,  1654.     On  the  25th  of  the 
month  the  Court  took  the  following  notice  of  the  matter : 

"  In  answer  to  a  writinge  presented  to  this  Court  by  Mr.  Henry 
Dunster,  wherein,  amongst  other  things  therin  contayned,  he  is 
pleased  to  make  a  resignation  of  his  place  as  president,  this  Court 
doth  order  that  it  shalbe  left  to  the  care  and  discretion  of  the 
overseers  of  the  Colledge  to  make  provision,  in  case  he  persist  in 
his  resolution  more  than  one  moneth  (and  informe  the  overseers) 
for  some  meete  person  to  carry  on  and  ende  that  work  for  the 
present,  and  also  to  act  in  whatever  necessitie  shall  call  for,  untill 
the  next  session  of  this  Court,  when  we  shalbe  better  enabled  to 
settle  what  shalbe  needful  in  all  respects  in  refference  to  the  Col- 
ledge  ;  and  that  the  said  overseers  wilbe  pleased  to  make  returne 
to  this  Court  at  that  time  of  what  they  shall  doe  herein."  ] 

Whatever  Dunster  may  have  said  in  his  letter  of  the 
reason  for  his  resignation,  no  reference  is  made  by  the 
Court  to  the  cause  of  it.  The  Overseers  gave  Dunster  to 
understand  that  his  service  was  so  valuable  and  so  highly 
appreciated  that  if  he  would  keep  silence  he  might  remain. 
But  he  had  his  own  conscience,  which  would  not  allow 
him  to  be  guided  by  theirs.  More  than  this.  In  order  to 
show  that  he  still  held  his  convictions,  on  the  occasion 
of  an  infant  being  offered  for  baptism  in  the  meeting 
house,  July  30,  1654,  he  rose  and  bore  testimony  of  dis 
approval.  Of  course  the  Court  availed  itself  of  its  own 
order,  assigning  the  dealing  with  such  offences  to  the 
county  courts.  And  so,  eight  months  after  the  offence 
had  been  committed,  and  ten  months  after  Dunster  had 
resigned  his  office,  we  read  the  following  record  of  the 
County  Court,  Cambridge  :  — 

"April  3,  1655,  Mr.  Henry  Dunster  being  presented  to  this 
Court  by  the  Grand  Jury  for  disturbance  of  the  ordinances  of 
Christ  upon  the  Lord's  day,  at  Cambridge,  July  30,  1654',  to  the 
dishonor  of  the  name  of  Christ,  his  truth  and  minister  "  — 

1  Records,  iii.  352. 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  399 

witnesses  testified  to  the  interruption  which  he  contin 
ued  when  asked  by  the  elder  to  forbear ;  affirming  that 
only  visible  penitent  believers  are  the  subjects  of  bap 
tism  ;  that  they  were  going  to  do  something  not  conformed 
to  the  institution  or  mind  of  Christ ;  that  the  covenant  of 
Abraham  is  not  ground  for  baptism  ;  and  that  corruptions 
were  coming  in.  The  last  point  probably  had  reference  to 
the  embarrassment  already  realized  in  the  Colonies  gener 
ally,  coming  from  the  growing  up  of  so  many  unbaptized 
persons,  consequent  upon  the  limitation  of  the  rite  to  the 
children  of  parents  being  church  members.  This  embar 
rassment  was  soon  to  lead  to  the  adoption  of  "  the  Half 
way  Covenant." 

The  Court  then  ordered  that  by  the  ecclesiastical  law  of 
1646,  punishing  the  offence  of  contempt,  Dunster  should  be 
publicly  admonished  by  a  magistrate  at  the  next  lecture- 
day  at  Cambridge,  and  give  bonds  for  his  appearance. 
Dunster  answered  the  next  day,  denying  that  he  had  done 
anything  in  "  contempt."  He  was  firm  but  gentle  in  his 
response,  saying  that  he  had  spoken  in  the  fear  of  God, 
that  he  stood  to  what  he  had  said,  and  wished  a  kind  con 
struction  put  upon  his  course.  The  admonition  was  in  due 
course  administered  on  him  in  the  meeting-house  at  Cam 
bridge  by  the  magistrate.  It  furnishes  a  scene  for  the 
Alumni  of  Harvard  who  have  cared  to  know  the  history  of 
the  college  which  is  their  pride,  and  to  trace  its  noble  ser 
vice  in  the  enlargement  and  liberalizing  of  thought  and  the 
advancement  of  truth.  Here  was  this  scholar  and  notable 
trainer  of  scholars,  probably  the  most  learned  man  in  the 
Colony,  as  learning  was  then  measured  and  valued,  in  the 
glory  of  his  ripe  manhood  and  personal  beauty,  his  auburn 
locks  not  yet  silvered,  greatly  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him, 
standing  to  be  censured  for  a  heresy.  True,  he  had  vio 
lated  a  law  of  the  Colony,  and  by  freeing  his  own  conscience 
in  protesting  offensively  against  a  rite  which  he  believed  to 
be  meaningless  and  erroneous,  he  had  wounded  the  con- 


400  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

sciences  of  others,  his  friends,  who  grieved  at  his  course. 
But  if  the  freedom  of  a  true  soul  could  not  be  allowed  to 
him,  who  could  enjoy  the  right  which  all  professed  to  value  ? 
It  was  in  the  meeting-house,  where  Dunster's  prayers  and 
his  teachings  on  all  other  subjects  had  been  received  with 
responsive  assent  and  gratitude.  Doubtless  among  the 
spectators  of  that  scene  were  some  of  Dunster's  young 
scholars.  Would  their  immature  judgments  draw  from  it 
an  influence  leading  them  in  riper  years  to  bigotry  or  scep 
ticism  ?  Yet  the  admonishers  and  the  admonished  were 
alike  sincere,  "  walking  in  the  light "  granted  to  each  of 
them.  One  is  well  disposed  to  recognize  some  other  than 
an  angry  or  vengeful  feeling  in  the  inflictors  of  this 
harsh  discipline ;  for  we  know  that  only  a  stern  fidelity 
to  their  own  convictions  could  prompt  them  thus  to  deal 
with  a  revered  man  whom  they  all  loved  and  highly 
prized.1 

Dunster  had  sent  in  a  second  resignation  Oct.  24,  1654. 
Nine  days  after  this,  November  2,  the  Overseers  had  elected 
Charles  Chauncy  as  his  successor.  He  also  was  a  heretic 
on  the  subject  of  baptism,  believing  that  though  infants 
were  proper  subjects  of  the  rite,  it  ought  to  be  performed 
by  immersion,  not  by  sprinkling.  On  this,  and  on  another 
belief  of  his,  namely,  that  the  Lord's  Supper  ought  to  be 
observed  in  the  evening,  he  agreed  to  the  requisition  of 

1  In  that  precious  publication,  "New  England's  First  Fruits,"  printed  in 
London,  in  an  early  year  of  Dunster's  presidency,  we  read  :  "  Over  the  College 
is  Master  Henry  Dunster  placed  as  President,  a  learned,  considerable,  and  in 
dustrious  man,  who  has  so  trained  up  his  pupils  in  the  tongues  and  arts,  and 
so  seasoned  them  with  the  principles  of  Divinity  and  Christianity,  that  we 
have,  to  our  great  comfort,  and  in  truth  beyond  our  hopes,  beheld  their  pro 
gress  in  learning  and  godliness  also."  Cotton  Mather  says  of  his  removal  from 
office  for  his  heresy  :  "  He  filled  the  Overseers  with  uneasy  fears,  lest  the  stu 
dents,  by  his  means,  should  come  to  be  ensnared."  The  famous  Bay  Psalm 
Book,  printed  at  Cambridge  in  1640,  after  it  had  passed  the  hands  of  the  three 
ministers  who  prepared  it,  was  submitted  to  Dunster,  "to  use  a  little  more  art 
upon  it."  Mather  says  Dunster  "revised  and  refined  the  translation."  See 
ing  that  it  is  what  it  is  after  this  process,  what  must  it  have  been  before  it  ? 


THE   BAPTISTS   UNDER  PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  401 

* 

the  Overseers  that  he  would  reserve  expressing  himself. 
He  had  been  about  returning  to  England. 

The  high-minded  and  patient  Dunster  had  sent  a  letter 
to  the  Court  Nov.  4, 1654,  acquiescing  in  his  lot.  He  was 
living  in  a  house  the  means  for  building  which  for  the 
use  of  the  president  had  been  largely  secured  by  him 
self,  from  his  special  friends.  It  was  provided  with  re 
sources  for  the  coming  of  a  sharp  New  England  winter. 
His  wife  was  sick,  as  was  his  youngest  child, -seriously. 
His  accounts,  public  and  private,  were  unsettled.  He  de 
sired  the  Court  to  consider  these  matters,  and  referring 
to  his  "  extraordinary  labors  "  for  the  college  for  fourteen 
years,  he  asks  for  a  continued  temporary  use  of  the  house. 
There  are  many  papers  preserved  in  our  State  Archives, 
which,  had  they  been  lost,  though  they  might  have  left 
some  gaps  in  our  history,  would  have  made  unnecessary 
some  of  the  blushes  caused  by  the  fathers  for  their  pos 
terity.  Among  them  is  one  1  containing  a  reply  of  the 
Court  to  Dunster's  letter.  Bellingham  and  Endicott  were 
then  Governor  and  Deputy.  The  reply  sneers  at  Dunster's 
reference  to  his  "  extraordinary  labors,"  asking  what  he 
had  done  except  as  belonging  to  his  station.  The  house 
is  refused  to  him  while  settling  his  accounts,  because  he 
might  protract  the  matter  indefinitely.  On  the  10th  of 
the  month  Dunster  again  addressed  the  Court  in  reply 
to  their  curt  answer  to  him.  The  "  Considerations  "  which 
he  offers  concern  most  the  season  for  a  houseless  and 
afflicted  family.  The  close  of  it  touches  a  tender  point : 

"  The  whole  transaction  of  this  business  is  such,  which  in  process 
of  time,  when  all  things  come  to  mature  consideration,  may  very 
probably  create  a  grief  on  all  sides,  yours  subsequent,  as  mine  an 
tecedent.  I  am  not  the  man  you  take  me  to  be.  Neither,  if 
you  knew  what  I  hold  and  why,  can  I  persuade  myself  that  you 
would  act  as  I  am  at  least  tempted  to  think  you  do."  2 

1  Mass.  Archives,  Iviii.  26.  2  Ibid.,  Iviii.  30. 

26 


402  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

He  was  allowed  to  remain  till  March.  Besides  his  own 
children,  he  had  those  of  his  wife  by  a  former  husband  to 
provide  for.  His  oldest  child  was  nine  years,  the, young 
est  thirteen  months  old.  He  went  to  reside  at  Scituate, 
the  Old  Colony  being  more  tolerant ;  and  here  he  did  kind 
service  in  helping  the  minister.  He  never,  like  Roger 
Williams,  submitted  to  rebaptism.  His  affairs  occasion 
ally  calling  him  to  Cambridge,  where  he  still  held  church 
relations,  a  child  was  there  born  to  him  in  December, 
1656.  For  not  offering  it  for  baptism  he  was  presented 
by  the  Grand  Jury  to  the  Cambridge  Court,  April  7,  1657, 
admonished,  and  required  to  give  bonds  to  appear  at  the 
next  Court  of  Assistants,  for  breach  of  the  law  of  1646. 
He  died  at  Scituate,  Feb.  27, 1659,  and  by  his  own  request 
his  body  was  brought  for  interment  in  sight  of  the  hall 
where  he  had  so  devotedly  labored  and  which  he  so  fondly 
loved.1  He  kindly  remembered  in  his  will  Mitchell  and 
Chauncy. 

There  is  no  single  exercise  in  our  early  annals  more 
painful  than  is  offered  us  in  the  case  of  Dunster,  of  the 
mixed  authority,  civil  and  religious,  in  what  we  have  learned 
to  regard  as  ways  unjust,  bigoted,  and  cruel  in  the  treat 
ment  of  matters  of  conscientious  opinions.  Its  peculiar 
quality  is  that  it  emphasizes  the  fact  that  personal  attach 
ments  and  high  public  interests  were  here  sacrificed,  and 
held  to  be  justly  and  necessarily  surrendered,  in  order  that 
an  impartial  and  awful  sternness  of  fidelity  to  a  standard 
of  religious  obligation  might  not  be  violated.  The  Court 
and  the  Overseers  seem  to  us  to  have  been  actually  besotted 

1  Morton,  in  New  England's  Memorial,  says  :  "  He  was  embalmed  and  re 
moved  to  Cambridge,  and  honorably  buried."  This  embalming,  which  was 
done  by  filling  the  coffin  with  tansy  and  other  herbs,  helped  in  the  identi 
fication  of  the  remains  of  Dunster.  The  memorial  stone  first  planted  over 
them  having  decayed,  and  the  inscription  having  disappeared,  there  had  been 
some  uncertainty  as  to  the  spot.  This  was  removed  by  the  search,  the  herbs 
still  retaining  their  fragrance  in  1845,  when  the  Corporation  provided  a  new 
and  fitting  monument. 


THE  BAPTISTS   UNDER  PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  403 

in  their  course  with  Dunster.  Not  a  single  word  to  his 
discredit  or  disesteem  is  found  on  the  record.  They  well 
knew  his  fitness  and  worth  in  his  place.  They  put  a  just 
estimate  upon  his  talents,  his  piety,  the  singular  graces 
of  his  character,  and  his  eminence  in  all  that  they  prized 
as  scholarship.  That  they  should  have  dealt  with  him  as 
they  did  is  an  apt  illustration  of  the  view  taken  of  their 
ideal,  design,  and  method  of  a  Biblical  commonwealth,  in 
these  pages.  It  is  also  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the 
spirit  and  type  of  their  bigotry,  however  in  part  originat 
ing  in  the  infirmities  of  human  nature,  drew  some  of  its 
relentless  severity  from  their  creed.1 

The  Baptists  were  the  first  among  the  sects  or  denomi 
nations,  breaking  in  upon  the  "  standing  order "  of  the 
Puritan  church  in  Boston,  to  establish  themselves  as  a 
separate  congregation  in  the  interest  of  the  special  tenet 
of  their  creed.  The  distinction  thus  won  by  the  sect  was 
honorably  secured  by  patient,  persistent  fidelity  and  con 
stancy  under  a  severe  ordeal  of  opposition.  There  was 
something  far  more  significant  in  innovation,  and  in  the 
direction  of  a  radical,  revolutionary  change  in  the  doctrinal 
platform  of  this  fellowship,  than  in  that  of  either  of  the 
other  existing  offshoots  from  the  Congregationalism  of 
the  Calvinistic  or  Westminster  pattern.  To  this  fact  we 
must  refer  the  attempted  repressive  effort  of  the  Court 
in  its  harsh  dealing  with  the  new  sect.  The  old  Congre 
gationalism  of  the  Colony  is  now  represented  by  many 
separate  fellowships  still  holding  to  the  original  policy  of 
church  institution  and  administration,  but  distinguished 
by  degrees  and  shades  of  liberalism  in  doctrinal  beliefs. 
The  Baptists,  however,  struck  at  the  most  vital  point  in 
the  Puritan  method  for  the  constitution  and  perpetuity 
of  a  church.  The  children  of  those  already  in  covenant, 

1  Life  of  Henry  Dnnster,  by  Rev.  Jeremiah  Chaplin,  D.D.  Boston,  1872. 
This  little  volume  is  alike  valuable  for  the  authenticity  of  its  matter  and  the 
impartiality  of  its  spirit. 


404  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

like  the  heirs  of  an  estate,  were  to  accede  to  the  Christian 
inheritance.  The  rite  of  baptism  was  the  initiatory  seal 
of  this  heirship,  and  full  possession  would  follow  when  in 
maturer  years  they  came  under  the  covenant  of  their 
parents.  But  neither  the  Court  nor  the  elders  could 
notice  without  anxiety  and  dismay  the  painful  facts  all 
too  forcibly  pressed  upon  their  attention,  that  large  num 
bers  of  children  were  growing  up  around  them  who  had 
not  been  baptized  because  their  parents  had  not  been  in 
covenant;  and  also  that  many  baptized  in  infancy  had, 
on  reaching  mature  years,  failed  to  become  church  mem 
bers.  The  sad  question  naturally  presented  itself  whether 
the  community  henceforward  was  to  consist  prevailingly 
of  a  heathen  or  a  Christian  population.  The  doctrinal 
position  of  the  Baptists  rather  aggravated  than  relieved 
the  anxiety  and  perplexities  of  the  authorities  in  Church 
and  State  on  this  point.  Making  no  account  of  any  Chris 
tian  birthright  accruing  to  children  from  their  parents, 
infant  baptism  was  discredited,  and  it  was  left  for  each 
man  and  woman  under  religious  experience  to  receive 
"  believer's  baptism,"  and  that  by  immersion. 

The  house  of  worship  now  in  succession  occupied  by  the 
First  Baptist  Society  in  Boston,  bears  the  inscription, 
"  Organised  in  1665."  It  is  a  peaceful  way  of  stating  an 
occasion  which  engaged  many  measures  of  ill-temper  and 
intolerance.  There  were  worthy  persons  then  in  the  Col 
ony  who  had  been  honored  members  of  Baptist  fellowships 
in  England.  Some  had  quietly  held  their  convictions 
without  obtruding  them ;  others  had  adopted  Baptist 
views  while  members  of  the  Puritan  churches,  and  some 
of  these,  who  had  given  offence,  had  been  under  discipline. 
In  the  year  just  mentioned  several  persons,  with  the  cour 
age  of  their  convictions,  gathered  in  an  assembly  of  their 
own,  with  ordinances.  The  General  Court,  in  October, 
1665,  following  the  action  of  a  previous  magistrates'  court, 
thus  dealt  with  the  leaders  of  the  movement.  The  charge 


THE  BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN   DISCIPLINE.  405 

was  of  "  a  schismaticall  rending  from  the  communion  of 
the  churches  heere,  and  setting  up  a  publick  meetinge  in 
opposition  to  the  ordinances  of  Christ  here  publicly  exer 
cised."  They  had  persisted  in  the  offence  after  warning. 
They  were  further  charged  — 

u  with  prophaning  the  holy  appointments  of  Christ,  and,  in  special!, 
the  sacrements  of  baptisme  and  the  Lord's  supper  by  administring 
the  same  to  persons  under  censure  of  an  approved  church  among 
us,  and  presuming  as  a  covert  of  theise  their  irreligious  and  per 
nicious  practices,  to  declare  themselves  to  be  a  church  of  Christ." 

Notwithstanding  another  solemn  admonition,  the  offend 
ers  refused  to  give  up  their  meetings  under  a  church 
form.  For  their  "  presumption  against  the  Lord  and  his 
holy  appointments,  as  also  the  peace  of  this  government," 
they  were  sentenced  to  disfranchisement  and  committed 
to  prison.1  The  next  year,  September,  1666,  the  Court 
allowed  their  discharge  on  the  payment  of  their  fines.  It 
also  provided  for  a  large  public  meeting  "  with  a  great 
concourse  of  people,"  which  the  prisoners  were  required 
to  attend,  where  "  diverse  elders  "  attempted  to  convince 
them  of  their  errors.  Of  course  it  was  in  vain.  So  in 
May,  1668,  the  Court  made  a  further  effort.  A  long  pre 
amble  describes  the  offenders  as  "  obstinate  and  turbulent 
Anabaptists  formed  with  others  in  a  pretended  church 
estate,  without  the  knowledge  or  approbation  of  the  au 
thority  here  established,  as  the  law  requires,  to  the  great 
griefe  and  offence  of  the  godly  orthodox."  Some  of  them 
are  excommunicated  persons.  They  have  chosen  officers 
not  conformable  to  the  law  which  requires  such  to  be 
"  able,  pious,  and  orthodox."  They  assert  that  their  pro 
ceedings  are  u  according  to  the  mind  of  God,"  and  they  are 
not  convinced  to  the  contrary.  They  make  — 

"  infaunt  baptisme  a  nullitie,  thereby  making  us  all  to  be  unbaptized 
persons,  and  so  consequently  no  regular  churches,   ministry,  or 
1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  290. 


406  THE    PURITAN    AGE. 

ordinances,  and  also  renouncing  all  our  churches  as  being  so  bad 
and  corrupt  that  they  are  not  fitt  to  be  held  communion  with,  — 
thus  setting  up  a  free  school  for  seduction  into  wayes  of  error, 
and  opening  a  door  for  all  sortes  of  abominations  to  come  in 
among  us,  with  contempt  of  our  civil  order,  and  the  authority 
here  established,"  etc. 

The  Court,  therefore,  "  judge  it  necessary  that  they  be 
remooved  to  some  other  part  of  this  country  or  elsewhere."  1 
They  are  sentenced  to  imprisonment  and  banishment,  but 
without  avail. 

From  fragments  of  information  to  be  gathered  from 
sources  outside  of  the  Records,  we  learn  that  there  was 
much  agitation  of  feeling  and  popular  dissent  and  oppo 
sition  of  judgment  as  to  the  course  pursued  by  the  Court. 
The  complaint  and  the  lament  just  quoted  from  the  Rec 
ords  enable  us  to  apprehend  the  dismay  and  consternation 
felt  by  the  authorities.  The  new  sect,  planting  itself  as 
resolutely  upon  Scripture  principles  as  did  their  opponents, 
would  not  yield  to  dictation  or  prohibition.  Yet,  as  the 
Court  rightly  affirmed,  their  fundamental  tenet,  and  the 
practice  conformed  to  it,  dealt  a  fatal  blow  to  the  doctrinal 
system  of  the  "  standing  order."  It  made  "  inf aunt  baptisme 
a  nullitie;"  it  pronounced  all  the  members  of  the  churches 
"  unbaptized  persons,"  and  left  them  without  a  valid  minis 
try  and  ordinances.  The  Baptists,  as  yet  having  no  trained 
and  able  ministers,  were  served  by  unordained  lay  exhorters, 
who  also  ventured  to  officiate  in  the  ordinances,  thus  open 
ing  "a  free  school  for  seduction  into  wayes  of  error."  The 
"  great  concourse  of  people  "  who  had  crowded  to  listen  to 
the  debates  between  the  elders  and  the  new  dissenters, 
included  many  sympathizers  with  the  latter,  and  of  course 
the  number  of  them  would  increase.  The  Court  was  fur 
ther  greatly  scandalized  and  evidently  irritated  by  a  peti 
tion  from  several  considerable  persons  in  Boston  and 
Charlestown,  desiring  favor  for  the  Baptists  under  its  dis- 

1   Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  374. 


THE  BAPTISTS   UNDER   PURITAN  DISCIPLINE.  407 

cipline.  The  petition  is  said  to  have  contained  "  many 
reproachful!  expressions  against  the  Court  and  their  pro 
ceedings."  Several  of  the  signers  were  summoned,  some 
of  whom  expressed  their  sorrow  for  their  act,  and  were 
let  off.  The  magistrates  succeeded  in  ferreting  out  two 
"  cheife  promoters  of  the  petition,  who  had  gone  from 
house  to  house  to  get  hands  to  it."  These  refusing  "  to 
discover  the  first  contriver  thereof,"  were  admonished  and 
fined.1 

But  the  Court  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  persistence, 
fidelity,  and  quiet  patience  of  these  "  turbulent  Anabap 
tists."  Both  the  name  and  the  epithet  attached  to  it  had 
lost  all  proper  meaning.  The  Baptists,  correctly  so  called, 
built  their  place  of  worship,  contented  themselves  with 
such  leaders  in  their  services  as  they  could  procure,  and 
did  not  have  to  wait  long  before  they  were  well  furnished 
with  able  and  learned  divines.  Courtesies  and  acts  of 
fellowship  between  the  Congregational  and  the  Baptist 
ministers  of  Boston  were  the  means  of  a  graceful  recon 
ciliation  of  a  grievous  strife. 

One  other  struggle,  and  that  the  severest  and  most 
tragic  of  the  efforts  of  the  Biblical  commonwealth  to 
maintain  its  rule  against  an  equally  resolute  opposition,  is 
now  to  engage  our  attention.  It  will  close  the  warfare 
of  militant  Puritanism. 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  413. 


XII. 
THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS. 

THE  first  English  settlers  of  the  peninsula  of  Boston, 
with  its  northern  extremity  rising  from  the  deep  waters 
of  the  Bay,  and  its  southern  border  united  to  the  mainland 
by  a  long,  narrow  neck,  approved  of  the  site  for  two  suffi 
cient  reasons,  —  the  harbor  waters  left  them  free  inter 
course  with  the  rest  of  the  globe,  and  the  slender  neck 
might  easily  be  fortified  against  an  inroad  of  the  savages. 
An  early  visitor  here  commended  the  situation  also  for  the 
reason  that  the  neck  would  keep  out  mosquitoes,  as  it 
made  the  peninsula,  literally,  almost  an  island.  This 
last  hoped-for  advantage,  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  town 
ever  since  have  had  occasion  to  be  well  aware,  was  delu 
sive.  Mosquitoes  have  always  had  free  access  here,  yield 
ing  only  to  the  autumn  frost.  The  savages,  though  more 
than  once  dreaded,  never  crossed  the  neck  but  as  friends 
or  diplomats.  But  the  sea-waters  were  not  so  secure. 
Many  a  panic  and  thrill  of  dread  struck  through  the  hearts 
of  the  inhabitants,  at  intervals  for  more  than  a  century  and 
a  half,  on  rumors  that  French  men-of-war  were  hovering 
near  the  Bay,  that  Spanish  cruisers,  privateers,  and  pirates 
were  at  hand  to  cast  their  volleys  or  to  levy  contribu 
tions.  But,  considering  the  occasion  of  it  and  the  lament 
able  issues  to  which  it  led,  never  was  there  a  sharper 
shock  or  a  more  ominous  consternation  caused  to  the 
magistrates  of  the  town  than  when,  July  11,  1656,  tid 
ings  were  circulated  that  there  was  a  ship  in  the  harbor 


THE   INTRUSION    OF   THE   QUAKERS.  409 

bringing  two  Quaker  women  from  England  by  way  of  Bar- 
badoes.  Were  it  not  for  the  tragic  consequences,  in 
cluding  the  darkest  stain,  among  many  other  lamentable 
incidents,  upon  the  annals  of  the  Biblical  commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  which  followed  upon  the  arrival  of  those 
two  female  apostles  of  truth  and  peace,  we  might  pause 
over  the  absurd  and  comic  elements  of  the  consternation 
and  panic  caused  by  the  occasion  to  those  grave  magis 
trates.1  The  women,  as  a  matter  of  course,  were  rightfully 
supposed  to  bring  with  them  a  good  supply  of  those  mis 
chievous  and  explosive  little  tracts,  the  munitions  of  their 
sect,  as  dreaded  as  was  French  ordinance. 

Before  narrating  the  proceedings  which  ensued  upon  the 
spreading  of  these  evil  tidings,  let  us  note  the  quality  and 
energy  of  the  two  forces  which  were  then  brought  into 
sharp  collision.  The  strongest  and  the  weakest  points 
of  attack  and  resistance  of  both  the  parties  present  them 
selves  at  the  opening  of  the  strife. 

The  Puritans  and  the  Quakers  at  that  precise  period 
represented  the  two  most  discordant  and  antagonistic 
bodies,  or  sects,  by  which  Christendom  was  divided.  The 
attitude  of  hostility  in  which  so-called  Papists  and  Protes 
tants  stood  to  each  other,  could  hardly  show  more  of  alien 
ation,  antipathy,  and  even  rancor,  than  were  drawn  out 
when  the  Quaker  defiantly  faced  the  Puritan,  claiming  to 
have  a  special  mission  of  rebuke  to  him  from  Heaven.  All 
the  differences  of  sentiment,  belief,  conviction,  and  con 
duct  which  attach  respectively  to  idealists  and  realists,  to 
conservatives  and  radicals,  to  literalists  and  spiritualists, 
would  need  to  be  set  forth  most  distinctly  and  emphatically 
in  order  to  show  in  full  contrast  the  principles  and  methods 
of  the  Puritans  of  Boston  and  their  dreaded  visitors.  And 

1  Bishop,  addressing  the  magistrates,  in  his  "  New  England  Judged," 
writes:  "Two  poor  women  arriving  in  your  harbor,  so  shook  ye,  to  the  ever 
lasting  shame  of  you,  and  of  your  established  peace  and  order,  as  if  a  formid 
able  army  had  invaded  your  borders." 


410  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

what  after  all  makes  the  tragic  narration  before  us  one 
that  will  draw  most  severely  upon  our  candor,  impartiality, 
and  sympathy,  is  the  undeniable,  indeed  the  obtrusive  fact, 
that  Puritans  and  Quakers  alike  held  their  principles  and 
convictions  with  equally  intense  and  conscientious  sin 
cerity,  and  exhibited  an  equal  constancy  and  self-sacrifice 
in  tenacity  and  in  fidelity  to  them. 

Our  sympathies,  as  we  look  back  upon  the  melancholy 
narrative,  go  with  the  Quakers,  as  temporarily  the  weaker, 
but  finally  the  victors  through  their  patient  heroism.  Be 
sides  this,  the  illuminating  truths,  the  liberalizing  spirit, 
and  the  sturdy  principles,  with  the  amiable  virtues,  which 
found  their  first  earnest  expression  and  consistent  advo 
cacy  in  the  Quakers,  make  us  ready  and  glad  to  affirm  that 
the  right  was  on  their  side,  and  that  they  were  on  the  side 
of  the  right.  But  that  had  to  be  proved.  It  is  not  to 
be  assumed  as  apparent,  and  least  of  all  as  to  have  been 
recognizable  by  the  Puritans.  It  may  well  be  asked  if 
some  superficial  readers  of  our  history  and  some  loving 
champions  of  the  Quakers  have  not  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  Puritans  also  had  consciences  and  principles,  — 
not  attractive  to  us  indeed,  but  very  constraining  and  very 
precious  to  them,  as  bought  with  a  price,  and  held  by  them 
devoutly  as  by  an  actual  covenant  between  them  and  God. 
So  inadequately  has  the  intense  sincerity  of  the  Puritans 
been  appreciated  by  some  of  their  censorious  judges,  as  to 
have  allowed  the  assumption,  with  a  marvellous  compla 
cency,  that  they  should  at  once  have  stricken  their  colors 
at  the  first  volley  of  the  Quakers.  We  may  well  use  that 
word  "  volley  "  in  description  of  the  scornful,  bitter,  and 
contemptuous  ,tones,  language,  epithets,  and  peremptory 
demands,  with  denunciations  of  Divine  judgments  hanging 
over  them,  by  which  the  Quakers  challenged  the  Puritans 
at  once  to  give  up  and  renounce  all  the  beliefs  and  usages 
approving  them  as  in  covenant  with  God.  The  Puritan 
sermons,  prayers,  ministry,  worship,  and  sacraments  were 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  411 

in  the  plainest  and  rudest  terms  of  speech,  with  the  glow 
and  passion  of  a  burning  zeal  thrown  into  them,  declared 
to  be  the  mere  ritual  of  the  devil.  A  striking  illustration 
of  the  fact  that  sympathy  in  feeling  will  engage  partiality 
in  judgment,  is  offered  when  the  champions  of  the  first 
Quaker  intruders  into  Massachusetts  express  strongly 
not  only  their  complaints  but  also  their  amazement,  that 
they  should  have  had  such  a  rough  reception.  The  in 
tolerance  of  the  Puritans,  and  their  bigotry,  were  proper 
subjects  of  rebuke  by  the  Quakers.  But  when  the  Quakers 
at  once  assailed  with  scorn  and  vituperation  the  religious 
beliefs  and  methods  of  the  Puritans,  they  themselves  be 
came  intolerant.  As  the  event  has  proved,  the  character 
istic  Puritan  principles  and  usages  which  the  Quakers  so 
reviled, — a  paid  ministry,  prepared  pulpit  discourses,  for 
mal  services,  and  the  ordinances,  —  have  survived  the  pecu 
liarities  of  Quakerism.  Renouncing  the  use  of  swords  and 
all  other  weapons,  and  non-resistants  of  all  violence  against 
them,  the  Quakers,  above  all  other  contestants  and  assail 
ants,  must  be  allowed  to  have  waged  the  most  galling  war 
fare  with  the  tongue.  Before  we  bring  the  representatives 
of  these  two  sharply  discordant  parties  into  each  other's 
presence,  we  must  inform  ourselves,  not  only  as  to  who  and 
what  the  strangers  really  were,  but  as  to  what,  under  the 
circumstances,  was  of  more  consequence,  —  who  and  what 
they  were  thought  to  be.  The  fact  that  alike  here  and  in 
England  the  Quakers  first  and  most  offensively  presented 
themselves  by  the  extravagances  of  their  earliest  manners, 
deprived  their  noble  principles  of  a  fair  and  candid  hearing. 
Brains,  imaginations,  impulses,  dreams,  emotions,  con 
sciences,  and  even  the  muscles  and  nerves  of  the  body,  had 
each  a  part  and  place  in  the  intense  workings  of  the  relig 
ious  sentiment,  freed  from  former  restraints,  in  novel  and 
startling  manifestations  during  the  middle  of  the  seven 
teenth  century  in  England.  Strangely  enough,  it  was  from 
the  convulsive  agitations  and  workings  of  muscles  and 


412  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

nerves  by  a  few  enthusiasts  when  under  the  dealing  of  mag 
istrates,  that  by  a  mere  hap-hazard  remark  the  disciples 
of  George  Fox  came  to  be  known  then,  as  afterward,  as 
Quakers.  Their  own  chosen  designation  —  one  which  then 
and  ever  since  best  became  them,  in  principle  and  in  life  — 
was  "  the  Society  of  Friends."  In  uttering  their  early 
burdens  and  testimonies,  they  were  observed  to  be  exer 
cised  by  violent  shakings  and  tremblings  of  their  limbs  and 
bodies.  They  explained  the  phenomena  by  saying  that  they 
trembled  and  quaked  under  the  power  of  the  Spirit  which 
possessed  them.  "  Then  let  them  be  called  '  Quakers.' ' 
Those  whom  they  offended  and  rebuked  gave  them  the  name 
in  derision.  They  made  but  slight  objection  to  bearing  it, 
though  they  spoke  of  themselves  as  the  people  "  in  scorn 
called  Quakers."  Soon  they  acquiesced  in  the  common  use 
of  the  epithet. 

Still  more  strange  is  it  that  this  trivial  incident,  whicli 
singled  out  the  least  significant  and  wholly  indifferent  phe 
nomenon  of  bodily  quaking  for  inventing  a  name  for  the 
new  sect,  serves  as  a  specimen  example  to  illustrate  the 
fact  that  for  more  than  a  score  of  years  the  mere  oddities, 
the  offensive  and  aggressive  behavior,  and  the  intensely 
extravagant  and  insolent  language  of  the  Quakers,  were  so 
obtruded  by  them  as  wholly  to  hide  from  recognition  the 
lofty  principles  of  truth  and  righteousness  which  are  the 
real  glory  of  their  fellowship.  The  Quakers,  however,  were 
themselves  rightly  chargeable  for  this  obscuring  of  their 
own  light,  and  blinding  their  opponents  to  its  manifestation 
in  them.  Their  words  and  behavior  were  heard  and  seen  to 
be  offensive  and  repulsive  before  those  who  withstood  them 
cared  to  be  informed  of  their  principles.  As  it  proved, 
these  principles  were  in  themselves  so  startling  and  obnox 
ious  in  their  novelty  and  radicalism  as  to  require  all  their 
bold  and  heroic  fidelity  and  constancy,  even  to  gain  them  a 
hearing.  But  having  some  grand  illuminating  and  liberal 
izing  truths  as  the  staple  of  their  principles,  that  fidelity 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  413 

and  constancy  to  them  won  them  a  triumph.  The  Quakers, 
from  being  the  least  understood  and  appreciated,  and  the 
most  abusively  and  cruelly  treated  of  all  the  contemporary 
sectaries,  were  the  first  of  them  all  to  secure  large  respect, 
immunity,  and  substantial  independence.  Before  any  other 
body  of  Nonconformists  obtained  even  that  measure  of  ex 
emption  from  disabilities  and  penalties  which  arbitrary 
power  at  last  yielded  to  them,  the  Quakers,  partly  from 
being  winked  at,  overlooked,  let  alone,  and  partly  from  win 
ning  to  themselves  real  respect,  held  their  meetings  unmo 
lested,  made  affirmations  instead  of  oaths,  and  solemnized 
their  own  marriages.  And  this  success  they  gained  with 
out  compliances  or  compromise.  The  very  radicalism  of 
their  principles  came  rather  to  amaze  than  to  shock  or 
offend  or  irritate  those  who  cared  to  inform  themselves  on 
the  subject.  But  unfortunately  our  concern  here  is  with 
those  of  the  sect  who  first  bore  the  name,  and  most  offen 
sively  in  speech  and  demeanor  obtruded  themselves,  by 
their  oddities  and  extravagances  on  men  naturally  most 
antagonistic  to  them.  The  Puritans,  alike  in  Old  England 
and  in  New  England,  regarded  the  first  Quakers  as  — 
using  familiar  words  now  current  —  we  regard  "  tramps  " 
and  "  cranks  ;  "  and  this  not  without  reasons  furnished  by 
the  Quakers  themselves.  For  they  were  roamers  and  wan 
derers  from  their  own  homes  and  country,  seemingly  de 
pendent  on  chance  fare ;  they  showed  many  signs  of  being 
"distraught  in  their  wits;"  they  were  uncivil  and  churlish, 
in  substituting  rude  and  blunt  for  courteous  speech  in  ad 
dressing  "  superiors." 

There  are  two  quite  distinct  classes  of  publications  mak 
ing  up  the  literature  of  Quakerism.  The  opinion  which  a 
reader  in  our  time  would  be  likely  to  form  of  the  sect  at  its 
origin,  of  the  character,  spirit,  education,  and  general  de 
meanor  and  utterances  of  its  members,  will  depend  very 
much  upon  which  class  of  these  publications  should  chieflv 
engage  his  attention  and  furnish  him  with  his  information. 


414  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

To  the  first  class  belong  the  original  contributions  to  that 
literature  made  by  its  first  individual  members.  These  are 
chiefly  small  tracts  containing  journals,  epistles,  narratives 
of  individual  experience  in  conviction,  in  travel,  and  under 
opposition,  trials  before  magistrates,  and  imprisonments. 
These  tracts  came  from  the  press  voluminously,  swelling 
the  flood  of  similar  publications  poured  forth  from  the  fer 
ment  working  in  the  brains,  hearts,  and  consciences  of 
people  of  all  classes,  especially  of  the  middle  class  of  Eng 
land,  in  the  seventeenth  century.  These  original  tracts  are 
not  easily  accessible  except  by  readers  who  can  avail  them 
selves  of  the  stores  gathered  on  the  shelves  and  in  the 
cabinets  of  libraries  rich  in  that  spoil  of  elder  times. 
Occasionally  they  may  be  picked  up  in  the  old  book-stalls 
of  England,  or  turned  out  in  searching  garrets  of  ancient 
dwellings.  Only  from  these  time-stained  relics  can  one 
catch  the  true  aroma  of  the  old  spirit  of  those  polemics. 
They  must  be  read  in  appreciation  of,  though  not  necessa 
rily  in  sympathy  with,  the  circumstances  and  the  writers 
which  produced  them.  From  perusing  a  considerable  num 
ber  of  them  one  can  easily  inform  himself  as  to  the  truth 
about  a  question  concerning  which  some  differences  of 
opinion  have  found  expression,  whether  the  earliest  Qua 
kers  were  generally  illiterate  enthusiasts,  intemperate  in 
controversy,  and  by  their  rude  speech  and  unseemly  behav 
ior  provoked  the  treatment  which  they  received.  Roger 
Williams,  the  most  trenchant  and  sharp-tongued  of  all  the 
opponents  and  disputants  against  Quakerism,  says  that  he 
had  read  George  Fox's  folio,  and  "above  six-score  books  and 
papers"  relating  to  the  sect.  These  of  course  were  its 
earliest  literature.  He  gives  his  judgment  and  estimate 
of  this  Quaker  literature  in  these  words:  " Their  many 
books  and  writings  are  extremely  Poor,  Lame,  Naked,  and 
sweld  up  only  with  high  Titles  and  words  of  Boasting  and 
Vapour."1  He  adds, "  that  the  Spirit  of  their  Religion  tends 

1  Publications  of  Narragansett  Club,  v.  5. 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  415 

mainly  to  reduce  Persons  from  Civility  to  Barbarisme." 
Very  many  high  encomiums  have  been  passed  by  essayists 
and  literary  critics,  notably  by  Mr.  Emerson,  upon  the  rich 
originality  and  vivacity  of  the  religious  genius  of  Fox,  as 
brightening  the  pages  of  his  Journal  and  Epistles.  But 
Lord  Macaulay,  whose  estimate  of  Fox  is  tart  and  flippant, 
says  that  his  "  Journal,  before  it  was  published,  was  revised 
by  men  of  more  sense  and  knowledge  than  himself,  and 
therefore,  absurd  as  it  is,  gives  us  no  notion  of  his  genuine 
style." 1  The  historian  does  not  give  us  his  authority  for 
this  statement,  and  I  hesitate  to  accept  it.  I  have  before 
me  the  folio  edition  of  Fox's  Journal  published  in  1694,  four 
years  after  his  death,  with  fifty  pages  of  prefatory  mat 
ter  by  his  devoted  and  ardent  disciple  William  Penn ;  and 
also  the  folio  collection  of  his  "  Epistles  to  Friends,"  pub 
lished  in  1698,  with  a  preface  by  his  loving  disciple  George 
Whitehead.  Neither  of  these  editors  mentions  any  revision 
of  their  originals,  nor  are  there  any  tokens  of  a  critical  over 
sight.  True,  in  reading  the  Epistles  one  may  grow  weary 
over  the  very  limited  range  of  thoughts  and  ideas  in  them, 
their  lack  of  any  glow  of  imagination,  their  repetition  of  a 
few  simple  and  gushing  phrases  of  appeal  and  exhortation, 
with  an  occasional  intrusion  of  rant,  and  an  almost  maud 
lin  liquidity  of  sentiment.  But  there  are  many  passages  in 
Fox's  Journal  which  have  a  marvellous  vigor,  sweetness, 
and  simple  grace  in  the  expression  of  the  truths  caught  by 
his  spiritual  insight.  How  could  be  expressed  with  more 
comprehensiveness,  force,  and  beauty,  than  in  his  words 
following,  the  sufficiency  to  a  believer,  of  Jesus  Christ  inde 
pendently  of  forms,  ordinances,  ceremonies,  priests,  and 
even  Scriptures?  Christ  as  the  living  and  ever  present 
Head  of  the  Church  is  "their  Teacher  to  instruct  them, 
their  Counsellor  to  direct  them,  their  Shepherd  to  feed 
them,  their  Bishop  to  oversee  them,  and  their  Prophet  to 
open  divine  mysteries  unto  them." 

1  History  of  England,  chap.  xvii. 


416  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Recurring  to  the  original  Quaker  tracts  which  pre 
ceded  the  publication  of  Fox's  collected  works,  though  he 
himself  sent  forth  several  like  single  products  of  his  pen, 
we  may  recognize  in  them  all  two  general  common  quali 
ties.  Under  quaint,  often  conceited,  and  often  bellicose  and 
vapory  titles,  not  infrequently  with  rasping  and  objurgatory 
epithets,  they  contain  the  armory  of  sharp  or  defensive 
weapons  against  priests,  opponents,  and  persecutors,  vindi 
cations  against  misrepresentation  and  abuse,  and  narra 
tives  of  knight-errantry  on  missionary  work.  Their  other 
prevailing  quality  is  an  overgush  of  sentiment,  in  a  few 
ever-recurring  phrases  of  sometimes  strong  and  tender, 
more  often  diluted  and  even  unwholesome  emotional  fer 
vors.  They  bear  abundant  evidence  of  sincerity  and  purity 
of  experience,  principle,  and  purpose,  with  joys  and  rap 
tures  of  spirit  over  the  deliverance  from  the  fetters  of  lit 
eralism  and  formality,  and  the  delights  of  free  spiritual 
intercourse  with  God  and  with  the  new  brotherhood.  The 
range  of  thought  and  sentiment  through  which  their  tes 
timonies  and  unstudied  exhortations  extended,  made  them 
very  effective  in  speech  and  in  devotional  utterances  over 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  sympathetic  hearers  whose  inner 
longings  craved  something  more  aglow  with  simple  piety 
than  they  found  in  Puritan  divinity  with  its  ministrations. 
Travelling  Quakers  carried  with  them  a  full  supply  of  their 
bellicose  and  their  hortatory  tractates,  dispersing  them 
freely  as  expositors  of  their  principles,  as  denunciations  of 
their  persecutors,  or  as  means  of  drawing  others  to  their 
fellowship.  When  the  obnoxious  schismatics  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  authorities,  who  regarded  them  as  pestilent 
tramps  and  disturbers  of  the  peace,  these  inflammatory 
tracts  were  taken  from  them  and  committed  to  the  fire.  I 
have  several  of  them  at  my  hand.  It  requires  leisure  and 
a  special  mood  of  mind  to  engage  interest  upon  them. 
They  mark  faithfully  a  stage  of  progress  in  the  emanci 
pation  of  mind  and  spirit,  in  the  middle  classes  of  society, 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  417 

from  the  cramps  and  fetters,  the  impositions  and  disabling 
limitations  of  priestly  sway,  and  the  literalisms  and  for 
malities  of  the  old  religious  rule.  At  the  same  time 
these  tracts  reveal  to  us  that  the  illumination  and  the 
audacity  requisite  for  the  leaders  in  this  special  stage  of 
advance  did  not  leave  their  own  spirits  wholly  unclouded, 
nor  stop  guardedly  at  the  bounds  where  courage  tres 
passed  beyond  order  and  decency. 

The  amount  and  comprehensiveness  of  what  may  be 
called  the  Quaker  literature  may  be  inferred  from  the  fol 
lowing  titles  of  two  considerable  volumes ;  namely,  "  Bibli- 
otheca  Anti-Quakeriana ;  "  or,  A  Catalogue  of  Books  adverse 
to  the  Society  of  Friends,  —  together  with  the  Answers 
which  have  been  given  to  some  of  them  by  Friends  and 
others;"  by  Joseph  Smith.  London,  1873.  8vo.  pp.474. 
"  Bibliotheca  Quakeristica :  A  Bibliography  of  Miscella 
neous  Literature,  relating  to  the  Friends.  Chiefly  writ 
ten  by  persons  not  members  of  their  Society ;  "  by  Joseph 
Smith.  London,  1883. 

The  compiler  of  these  titles,  with  biographical  sketches, 
allows  himself  in  both  works  a  considerable  range  of  lib 
erty,  as  he  includes  many  tracts  and  volumes  having  con 
nection  with  the  views  and  affairs  of  the  Friends  only  very 
indirectly,  and  principally  as  associated  with  the  enormous 
outpourings  of  the  press  on  the  subjects  in  discussion  and 
controversy  with  the  utterers  and  antagonists  of  enthusiasm 
and  fanaticism  of  the  time. 

Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  that  the  most  fiery  and  spicy 
of  the  early  tractates  of  Quakerism  met  with  responses  of 
like  character  from  the  conservatives  of  the  old  rule  whom 
they  aggrieved  or  outraged. 

We  can  well  understand  what  were  the  tone  and  con 
tents  of  the  contemporary  tracts  thrown  back  to  the  Qua 
kers  from  those  who  scorned  or  dreaded  them,  under  such 
titles  as  these :  "  Hell  Broke  Loose  ;  or,  an  History  of  the 
Quakers  both  Old  and  New ; "  by  Thomas  Underbill.  1660. 

27 


418  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"  Antichrist's  Strongest  Hold  Overturned  ;  or,  the  Founda 
tion  of  the  Religion  of  the  People  called  Quakers,  Bared 
and  Razed  ; "  by  John  Wiggan.  1665.  "  The  Quaker 
Catechism ; "  by  Richard  Baxter.  1656.  "  Quakerism  the 
Pathway  to  Paganism;"  by  John  Brown.  1678.  Roger 
Williams's  pleasancy  and  piquancy  led  him  to  entitle  his 
onslaught  upon  Quakerism,  "  George  Fox  Digg'd  out  of 
his  Burrowes,"  thus  paying  his  respects  to  Fox's  able  coad 
jutor,  Edward  Burroughs.  The  compliment  was  returned 
in  the  answer  to  Williams  entitled,  "  A  New  England  Fire- 
Brand  Quenched."  Morton,  in  his  "  New  England  Memo 
rial,"  l  says  that  President  Dunster,  in  his  retirement  at 
Scituate  from  persecution,  "  opposed  the  abominable  opin 
ions  of  the  Quakers."  Baylies2  says  that  he  was  "vin 
dictive"  in  his  treatment  of  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
General  Cndworth,  of  Scituate,  who,  though  not  a  Qua 
ker,  opposed  their  ill-treatment,  said  in  a  letter  of  1658, 
"  Through  mercy,  we  have  yet  among  us  the  worthy  Mr. 
Dunster,  whom  the  Lord  hath  made  boldly  to  bear  testi 
mony  against  the  spirit  of  persecution." 3  Something 
more  is  to  be  said,  further  on,  of  the  tongue  rancor  of 
Roger  Williams  in  his  disputations  against  Quakers  and 
their  ways.  ' 

The  other  class  of  Quaker  publications,  coming  mainly 
from  those  who  had  no  share  in  their  early  contentions, 
bufferings,  and  sufferings,  but  were  in  fellowship  and 
hearty  sympathy  with  them,  were  the  calm  and  intelligent 
expositions  of  their  principles,  vindicating  them  from  cal 
umny,  and  proudly  setting  forth  their  purity,  virtues,  and 
constancy.  The  fidelity  and  absolute  truthfulness  of  these 
writers  may  be  implicitly  relied  upon.  Nor  is  it  strange 
if  their  candor  and  impartiality  are  occasionally  at  fault. 
They  depend  for  the  most  part  upon  compilations  and 

1  Davis's  edition,  p.  283. 

2  History  of  Plymouth  Colony,  ii.  50. 

3  Deane's  History  of  Scituate,  p.  248. 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  419 

digests  irom  the  original  Quaker  tracts  and  journals. 
"  New  England  Judged,"  by  George  Bishop,  was  the  first 
of  these  secondary  publications.1  The  best  tribute  that 
could  be  paid  to  the  substantial  excellence,  veracity,  and 
real  practical  value  of  Quaker  principles,  when  freed  from 
the  crudity  and  extravagance  of  their  original  utterance 
and  expression,  was  that  during  the  lifetime  of  their  first 
generation  they  should  have  found  such  able  and  adequate 
champions,  and  exemplars  as  Besse,  Sewall,  Penn,  and 
Barclay.  SewalPs  "  History  of  the  Quakers  "  was  pub 
lished  in  1722.  Besse's  "  Sufferings  of  the  Quakers  "  was 
published  in  1753.  Robert  Barclay,  whose  "Apology  for 
the  Church  and  People  of  God  called  in  derision  Quakers  " 
we  may  even  call  the  classical  production  of  his  fellowship, 
published  his  able  work  in  1676.  The  dates  of  Fox's 
two  folios  have  already  been  given.  The  Friends  have 
always  been  zealous  in  gathering,  preserving,  and  editing 
the  manuscripts  of  their  members.2 

From  both  classes  of  these  original  tracts  —  those  of  the 
Quakers  and  the  anti-Quakers  —  we  may  well  infer  that 
the  two  parties  were  on  a  level  in  temper,  effusiveness, 
and  stinging  volubility  in  the  assault  and  defence.  These 
characteristics  are  by  no  means  restricted  to  this  portion 
of  the  polemical  literature  of  the  time,  but  run  through  the 
whole  of  it.  Fuller,  if  not  richer,  than  the  vocabulary  of 
Shakspeare  and  Milton  are  these  polemical  fireworks  in 
the  sharp  epithetical  adjectives  in  which  the  English  lan 
guage  abounds.  Indeed,  we  learn  its  wealth  in  those  terms 

1  Bishop's  work  was  originally  published  in  two  parts,  —  the  first  in  1661, 
the  second  in  1667.     The  two,  somewhat  abridged,  reappeared  together  in 
1703,  and  bound  with  the  volume  is  John  Whiting's  Answer  to  Cotton  Ma 
ther's  account  of  the  New  England  Quakers,  in  his  Magnalia. 

2  The  first  collection  of  these  papers  was  made  under  the  superintendence 
of  Fox  himself,  at  Swarthmore  Hall,  from  1651  to  1661.     These  are  now  pre 
served  in  the  Friends'  Depository,  in  Devonshire  House,   London.     Joseph 
Smith  published  in  London,   in   1867,  "  A  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Friends' 
Books,"  and  in  1873,    "A   Catalogue   of  Books  adverse  to  the  Society  of 
Friends." 


420  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

of  speech  only  after  reading  largely  in  the  literature  of 
sectarian  controversy. 

Quakerism,  in  its  origin,  was  an  eclecticism  in  tenets  of 
belief  and  in  principles  of  life  and  conduct.  It  did  not 
originate  as  novelties  either  its  eccentricities  or  its  sub 
stantial  principles,  with  the  application  of  them.  All  the 
peculiarities  of  opinion  and  all  the  oddities  and  extrava 
gances  of  demeanor  first  noticeable  in  the  Friends  had 
been  adopted  and  exhibited  by  one  or  another  of  the  ex 
traordinary  individuals  or  fellowships  among  the  sectaries 
of  the  time.  Edwards's  "  Gangreena,"  Pagitt's  "  Heresiog- 
raphy,"  Featley's  "  Dippers  Dipt,"  and  other  similar  sum 
maries  of  novelties  and  extravagances  of  the  time,  show 
how  those  now  identified  with  Quakerism  had  been  antici 
pated.  And  this  was  in  fact  largely  the  occasion  of  the 
misconception,  the  ill-reception,  and  the  odium  which  were 
concentrated  upon  the  Friends.  Their  opinions  and  actions 
identified  them  with  various  types  of  fanatics  and  enthu 
siasts,  who  in  their  previous  appearance  had  held  these 
heresies  in  connection  with  some  gross  immoralities,  some 
really  malignant  and  defiant  outrages  and  avowals  which 
made  them  justly  amenable  to  restraints  and  penalties. 
The  Quakers  really  held  none  of  these  evil  affiliations  of 
heresy.  They  were,  however,  made  responsible  for  them. 
One  of  these  extravagances  was  a  denial  and  contempt  of 
civil  magistracy,  to  which  there  are  frequent  references  in 
these  pages.  The  Quakers  were  charged  with  this  lawless 
ness,  but  most  unjustly.  They  objected  only  to  the  exten 
sion  of  the  authority  of  magistracy  over  matters  of  religion 
and  conscience,  but  in  other  respects  were  the  most  ex 
emplary  in  their  citizenship.  This  holding  them  as  re 
sponsible  for  all  the  heresies  in  any  way  related  to  their 
opinions  and  principles,  and  what  was  really  irritating, 
provoking,  and  offensive  in  their  own  rant  of  speech  and 
unconventional  and  discourteous  ways,  were  the  chief  oc 
casions  for  the  odium  and  violence  visited  on  them. 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  421 

Of-  George  Fox,  the  founder  —  or  rather  organizer  —  of 
the  Society  of  Friends,  the  best  account  we  have  is  in  his 
own  words,  as  follow :  — 

A  Testimony,  how  the  Lord  sent  G.  F.  forth  at  first,  in  the 
Tear  1643. 

When  the  Lord  first  sent  me  forth  in  the  Year  1643,  I  was 
sent  as  an  Innocent  Lamb  (and  Young  in  Years)  [twenty  years 
of  age]  amongst  (Men  in  the  Nature  of)  Wolves,  Dogs,  Bears, 
Lions,  and  Tigres,  into  the  World,  which  the  Devil  had  made  like 
a  Wilderness,  no  right  Way  then  found  out  of  it.  And  I  was 
sent  To  Turn  People  from  Darkness  to  the  Light,  which  Christ, 
the  Second  Adam,  did  Enlighten  them  withal ;  that  so  they  might 
see  Christ,  their  Way  to  God,  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  he 
doth  pour  upon  all  Flesh,  that  with  it  they  might  have  an  Under 
standing  to  know  the  Things  of  God,  and  to  know  him  and  his 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  Eternal  Life ;  and  so  might  worship 
and  serve  the  Living  God,  their  Maker  and  Creator,  who  takes 
care  for  all,  who  is  Lord  of  all ;  and  with  the  Light  and  Spirit  of 
God,  they  might  know  the  Scriptures,  which  were  given  forth 
from  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  Saints  and  Holy  Men  and  Women 
of  God. 

And  when  many  began  to  be  turned  to  the  Light  (which  is 
the  Life  in  Christ)  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  gave  them  an 
Understanding,  and  had  found  the  Path  of  the  Just,  the  Shining 
Light,  then  did  the  Wolves,  Dogs,  Dragons,  Bears,  Lions,  Tigres, 
Wild  Beasts,  and  Birds  of  Prey  make  a  Roaring  and  a  Screeching 
Noise  against  the  Lambs,  Sheep,  Doves,  and  Children  of  Christ, 
and  were  ready  to  devour  them  and  me,  and  to  tear  us  to  pieces. 
But  the  Lord's  Arm  and  Power  did  preserve  me,  though  many 
times  I  was  in  Danger  of  my  Life,  and  very  often  cast  into  Dun 
geons  and  Prisons,  and  haled  before  Magistrates.  But  all  things 
did  work  together  for  good ;  And  the  more  I  was  cast  into  out 
ward  Prisons,  the  more  People  came  out  of  their  Spiritual  and 
Inward  Prison  (through  the  Preaching  of  the  Gospel).  But  the 
Priests  and  Professors  were  in  such  a  great  Rage,  and  made  the 
Rude  and  Profane  People  in  such  a  Fury,  that  I  could  hardly 
walk  in  the  Streets,  or  go  in  the  High  ways,  but  they  were 


422  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

ready  oft-times  to  do  me  a  Mischief.  But  Christ,  who  hath  all 
Power  in  Heaven  and  in  the  Earth,  did  so  restrain  and  limit  them 
with  his  Power  that  my  Life  was  preserved,  though  many  times  I 
was  near  killed.  Oh,  the  Burdens  and  Travels  that  I  went  under ! 
Often  my  Life  prest  down  under  the  Spirits  of  Professors  and 
Teachers  without  Life,  and  the  Profane  !  And  besides  the 
Troubles  afterwards  with  Backsliders,  Apostates,  and  false  Breth 
ren,  —  which  were  like  so  many  Judas's  in  betraying  the  Truth,  — 
and  God's  Faithful  and  chosen  Seed,  and  causing  the  Way  of 
Truth  to  be  evil  spoken  of !  But  the  Lord  blasted,  wasted,  and 
confounded  them,  so  that  none  did  stand  long ;  for  the  Lord  did 
either  destroy  them,  or  bring  them  to  nought,  and  his  Truth  did 
flourish,  and  his  People  in  it,  to  the  Praise  of  God,  who  is  the 
Revenger  of  his  Chosen. 

Pox,  a  son  of  "  honest  Christopher,"  a  weaver,  was  born 
at  Drayton  in  July,  1624,  and  died  Feb.  13,  1690.  The 
above  account  of  himself  was  evidently  written  as  a  retro 
spect  of  the  past.  The  reference  which  he  makes  to  the 
troubles  which  he  had  had  with  "  Backsliders,  Apostates, 
and  false  Brethren "  should  fix  our  attention,  because  the 
least  offensive  of  the  Friends  suffered  by  not  being  distin 
guished  from  these  unworthy  pretenders  and  fanatics. 

But  Fox  does  not  here  tell  us  why  he  was  so  wondered 
at  and  ill-treated,  though  his  Journal  affords  a  full  explana 
tion  of  the  matter.  As  already  stated,  he  and  his  brethren 
were  first  known  by  what  was  simply  whimsical,  offensive, 
and  obtrusive  in  their  ways,  —  their  incivility,  rudeness, 
and  seeming  insolence  and  impudence.  After  Fox,  in  his 
religious  musings,  had  tried  in  vain  to  find  spiritual  help 
from  priests,  professors,  doctors  of  divinity,  and  dissenting 
teachers,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  had  none 
to  give  him,  had  not  even  any  themselves,  but  were  all 
"  in  the  Dark."  And  soon  he  began  very  frankly  to  tell 
them  so,  with  rebukes  and  reproaches,  thus  bringing  them 
into  contempt  with  those  whose  respect  and  confidence 
they  desired.  As  his  life  was  a  wandering  one,  he  had 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  423 

made  himself  a  pair -of  "leather  breeches,"  and  was  soon 
widely  known  by  an  epithet  drawn  from  that  part  of  his 
apparel.  When  it  was  noised  abroad  that  "  the  man  with 
leather  breeches"  was  near  by,  a  crowd  was  soon  at 
tracted.  He  visited  "  steeple-houses "  to  challenge  and 
rebuke  the  priest.  When  brought  before  magistrates  he 
refused  to  remove  his  hat,  as  this  would  signify  deference 
or  worship,  or  the  acknowledgment  of  a  superior,  giving  to 
men  the  honor  that  belonged  only  to  God.  For  the  same 
reason  he  used  "  thee  "  and  "  thou,"  instead  of  the  usual 
plural  pronoun,  in  addressing  an  individual.  It  may  have 
been  that  Fox  had  read  no  other  book  than  the  Bible.  If 
so,  he  illustrates  a  familiar  saying,  that  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  English  Bible  is  an  education.  Fox  being  asked 
his  "  warrant  for  the  hat,"  that  is,  Scripture  authority  for 
keeping  it  on  in  the  presence  of  magistrates,  master  as 
he  was  of  the  letter  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  Scripture,  he 
instantly  quoted  the  only  place  where  the  word  appears,  — 
Daniel  iii.  21, —  of  the  three  Jews  who  were  bound  before 
Nebuchadnezzar  "  in  their  coats,  their  hoseu,  and  their 
hats,"  to  be  cast  into  the  furnace.1  So  he  proscribed 

1  Two  missionary  Quakers,  Fisher  and  Stubbs,  sent  in  to  the  Prince  Elector 
Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  through  his  secretary,  word  that  they  "had  a  message 
for  him."  He  received  them  courteously,  and  both  at  this  interview,  and  at 
the  supper  with  his  nobles  to  which  he  invited  them,  the  Quakers  found 
much  satisfaction  in  keeping  on  their  hats,  though  all  others  were  uncovered. 
There  may  have  been  brains  under  those  hats, -but  the  fact  was  not  proved  by 
this  whimsey  of  the  wearers,  which,  however,  may  have  afforded  as  much 
amusement  to  the  host  and  his  guests  as  it  did  of  conscientious  comfort  to 
the  Quakers  (Bishop,  p.  17).  I  have  somewhere  met  with  an  anecdote  to 
this  effect.  A  Quaker  approaching  to  address  Charles  II.,  at  ball  play  in  the 
Park,  kept  on  his  hat.  The  King,  with  affected  deference,  removed  his  own 
plumed  head-gear.  The  abashed  Quaker  remonstrated,  saying,  "  Friend, 
thee  need'st  not  remove  thy  hat."  "Oh,  no  matter,"  replied  the  volatile 
monarch;  "only,  when  a  subject  is  conversing  with  the  King,  it  is  usual  for 
one  of  them  to  be  without  his  hat."  Some  of  our  magistrates  seem  to  have 
caught  discourtesy  from  the  Quakers.  Randolph,  in  his  report  to  the  King, 
of  his  reception  by  the  Council  for  presenting  his  Majesty's  letter,  in  1676, 
writes  :  "At  the  beginning  of  the  reading,  the  whole  councill  being  covered, 


424  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

"  bowing,"  as  the  woman  in  the  Gospel  who  "  had  a  spirit 
of  infirmity  was  bowed  together  by  the  Devil,"  but  straight 
ened  up  when  delivered.  Seeming  to  imagine  that  the 
people  were  aware  of  their  paganism  in  using  the  names 
of  heathen  gods  'for  the  days  of  the  week  and  the  titles 
of  the  months,  he  bade  them  distinguish  by  numbers.  He 
proscribed  a  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  for 
a  minister,  as  "  tongues  began  at  Babel."  But  these 
crotchets  would  have  been  small  capital  on  which  to  start 
a  new  sect,  and  the  offence  going  with  them  was  trivial 
to  all  but  precisians.  Fox's  own  Journal  tells  us  that  — 

"  when  the  Lord  sent  me  forth  into  the  World  he  forbad  me  to 
put  off  my  Hat  to  any,  High  or  Low.  And  I  was  required  to  Thee 
and  Thou  all  Men  and  Women,  without  any  respect  to  any  Rich 
or  Poor,  Great  or  Small.  And  as  I  travelled  up  and  down,  I  was 
not  to  bid  People  Good-Morrow  or  Good-Evening ;  neither  might 
I  Bow  or  Scrape  with  my  Leg  to  any  one."  1 

He  testified  also  against  "  Wakes  or  Feasts,  May-Games, 
Sports,  Plays,  and  Shews." 

"  But  the  black,  Earthly  Spirit  of  the  Priest  wounded  my  Life : 
And  when  I  heard  the  Bell-toll,  to  call  People  together  to  the 
Steeple-house,  it  struck  at  my  Life.  For  it  was  just  like  a  Mar 
ket-Bell  to  gather  People  together  that  the  Priest  might  set  forth 
his  Ware  for  Sale.  Oh  the  vast  sums  of  Money  that  are  gotten 
by  the  Trade  they  make  of  selling  the  Scriptures ! " 

Feeling  such  a  burden  in  his  soul,  Fox  could  not  restrain 
it  there.  Macaulay  says  that  Fox,  so  far  from  being 
skilled  in  the  languages,  "  did  not  know  any  language." 

I  put  off  my  hat,  whereupon  three  of  the  magistrates  tooke  off  their  hats 
and  sate  uncovered  ;  but  the  governor  with  the  rest  continued  to  keep  their 
hats  on  "  (Hutchinson's  Collection  of  Papers,  p.  504). 

1  It  is  with  no  intent  of  flattery,  as  Fox  thought,  that  in  English  idiomatic 
speech  the  plural  "you,"  as  in  German  "they,"  is  used  in  addressing  an  indi 
vidual.  Indeed,  the  address  "thou"  seerns  to  be  much  more  stately  in  tone, 
as  reserved  for  the  Deity. 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE  QUAKERS.  425 

Fox  well  knew  his  own  mother  tongue,  and  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  in  any  writer  —  except  it  may  be  in  some 
of  the  authors  of  the  tracts  that  have  been  referred  to  — 
a  more  copious  and  varied  supply  of  epithetical  adjectives, 
abusive,  contemptuous,  objurgatory,  and  insulting  terms, 
than  Fox  uses  against  the  priests  and  magistrates.  These 
invectives  fired  and  gave  a  sting  to  the  testimonies  which 
he  delivered  in  the  steeple-houses,  and  in  his  confronting 
priests  wherever  he  met  them.  It  was  for  these,  and  not 
for  his  "  theology  "  that  he  was  buffeted  and  imprisoned. 
The  Quaker  historians  are  exhaustively  faithful  in  the  sta 
tistics  of  their  sufferers  by  persecution  in  England  and 
in  New  England.  One  hundred  and  seventy  of  such  suf 
ferers  are  charged  upon  New  England  under  fines  and 
various  penalties.  In  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland 
there  are  enumerated  13,258,  who  bore  more  or  less  of 
these  inflictions ;  219  were  banished  at  one  time  from 
Bristol  alone ;  360  died  from  prison  inflictions  and  dis 
tempers,  some  having  been  confined  eight  or  ten  years. 

Under  the  light  and  freedom  of  our  own  times  humanity 
asserts  its  claims  in  restraining  the  penalties  inflicted  upon 
all  classes  of  offenders.  This  constitutes  the  principal  if 
not  the  only  difference  between  the  judicial  proceedings 
of  former  ages  and  our  own.  If  a  zealous  Puritan  of  the 
native  stock  in  this  city  —  whether  to  be  regarded  as  sane 
or  insane,  according  to  the  view  taken  of  his  action  — 
should  on  a  Sunday  morning  rush  into  the  Roman  Catho 
lic  Cathedral,  when  crowded  with  worshippers,  and  should 
there  utter  fervent  protests  against  "  the  superstitions, 
blasphemies,  and  idolatries  "  of  the  service,  he  would  be 
seized,  and  as  it  might  happen,  with  or  without  rough  treat 
ment,  depending  upon  the  hands  into  which  he  fell,  he 
would  be  locked  up  in  a  station-house.  On  Monday  he 
would  be  brought  before  a  magistrate  and  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  or  a  fine.  On  a  repetition  of  the  offence 
the  penalty  would  be  increased.  If  when  released  he 


426  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

should  still  insist  upon  bearing  his  testimony,  he  would 
be  permanently  committed  to  an  asylum  as  insane.  Here 
would  be  a  deprivation  of  liberty  without  bodily  infliction, 
now  disused,  not  because  undeserved,  but  because  barba 
rous.  In  this  last  respect  alone  we  note  the  difference. 
In  the  age  with  which  we  are  dealing,  scourgings,  mutila 
tions  of  the  body,  and  cruel  treatment  in  loathsome  dun 
geons  were  additional  punishments  visited  upon  all  classes 
of  offenders,  whether  men  of  rank  and  office  like  Prynne, 
Burton,  and  Bastwicke,  or  common  vagabonds.1  That 
excellent  English  country  gentleman,  John  Evelyn,  Esq., 
pure  and  elevated  in  his  character,  who,  contemporaneously 
with  the  famous  roue'  and  worldling,  Samuel  Pepys,  was 
writing  so  unlike  a  Journal,  gives  us,  under  date  of  July  8, 
1656,  while  he  was  in  Ipswich,  the  following  entry  :  — 

"  I  had  the  curiosity  to  visite  some  Quakers  here  in  prison ;  a 
new  phanatic  sect,  of  dangerous  principles,  who  show  no  respect 
to  any  man,  magistrate  or  other,  and  seeme  a  melancholy,  proud 
sort  of  people,  and  exceedingly  ignorant.  One  of  these  was  said 
to  have  fasted  twenty  daies ;  but  another  endeavouring  to  do  the 
like  perished  on  the  tenth,  when  he  would  have  eaten  but  could 
not." 2 

The  Platonic  divine,  Henry  More,  who  should  have 
appreciated  the  ideality  of  the  Quakers,  was  impressed  by 
what  he  called  their  "  Pharisaical  Sourness,"  and  by  their 
being  "  undoubtedly  the  most  Melancholy  Sect  that  ever 
was  yet  in  the  world."  3 

It  was  with  apostles  of  this  strange  and  odious  sect, 
whose  extravagances  for  the  time  obscured  their  noble 

1  Arthur  Christopher  Benson,  in  his  "  Study  of  the  Life  and  Character  of 
Archbishop  Laud,"  referring  to  the  severity  of  the  sentences  pronounced  by 
that  prelate  in  the  Star  Chamber,  so  dreaded  by  the  Puritans,  says  :  "  We 
must  remember  that  the  shearing  away  of  ears  was  in  the  style  of  the  time, 
and  did  not  seem  to  be  any  violation  of  the  principles  of  humanity"  (p.  161). 

2  Journal,  ii.  114. 

8  Enthusiasmus  Triumphatus,  p.  19. 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE  QUAKERS.  427 

principles,  that  the  Puritan  magistrates  of  Massachusetts 
were  now  to  be  confronted.  It  was  strange  that  a  visit 
from  them  should  have  been  so  long  deferred.  For  the 
majority  of  the  first  disciples  of  the  sect,  under  the  glow 
and  joy  of  their  new  illumination,  were  prompted  to  wide 
missionary  wanderings  beyond  the  bounds  of  Protestant 
ism,  and  even  of  Christendom,  to  communicate  their  mes 
sages.  Twelve  years  had  passed  since  Fox  had  begun  his 
travelling  ministry.  But  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts, 
though  so  long  spared  their  presence,  were  thoroughly 
informed,  through  correspondence  and  books,  of  the  phe 
nomena  of  the  sect  in  England,  and  had  the  utmost  dread 
of  them,  as  bent  on  mischief  of  the  most  alarming  and  dan 
gerous  character.1  Books  of  a  similar  sort  with  those  of 
the  Quakers,  such  as  the  writings  of  the  mystical  enthusi 
asts  John  Reeves  and  Ludwick  Muggleton,  "  the  two  last 
Witnesses,"  known  to  be  circulating  in  the  Colony,  had 
been  proscribed  by  a  law  in  1654.  A  month  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Quakers  a  solemn  Fast  Day  had  been  ob 
served,  "  to  seek  the  face  of  God  in  behalf  of  our  native 
countrie,  in  reference  to  the  abounding  of  errors,  especially 
those  of  the  Ranters  and  Quakers."  There  was  no  law  as 
yet  on  the  statute-book  concerning  them,  and  they  could 
legally  be  got  rid  of  only  by  an  application  of  the  law 
against  strangers  passed  in  the  Antinomian  struggle.  The 
charges  which  the  Quaker  historians  visit  upon  the  Puritan 
magistrates  for  all  their  severities  against  the  intruding 
Quakers  begin  at  this  point :  that  before  they  had  com- 

1  It  is  possible  that  the  first  reports  which  had  been  received  here  about 
the  Quakers  in  England  soon  after  their  appearance,  may  have  prompted  the 
use  of  some  peculiar  expressions  in  the  elaborate  ecclesiastical  laws  passed  by 
the  Court  in  November,  1646.  In  imposing  a  fine  for  non-attendance  on,  and  for 
disturbing,  worship,  the  law  refers  to  such  as  "  renouncing  church  estate  or  min 
istry,  or  other  ordinances  dispensed  in  them,  either  upon  pretence  that  the 
churches  were  not  planted  by  any  new  apostles,  or  that  ordinances  are  for  car- 
nall  Christians,  or  babes  in  Christ,  and  not  for  spiritual  and  illuminate  per 
sons,"  etc.  (Records,  iii.  100). 


428  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

mitted  any  offence,  and  while  there  was  no  law  by  which 
they  could  be  so  summarily  dealt  with,  they  were  treated, 
as  it  were  by  anticipation,  as  culprits.  The  first  comers 
suffered  no  bodily  infliction,  save  confinement  to  prevent 
the  "infection  of  their  principles."  Punishment  indeed, 
in  the  form  of  fines,  and  a  bond  to  carry  away  their  un 
welcome  passengers,  were,  as  we  shall  see,  exacted  of  the 
master  mariners  who  had  unwittingly  brought  them  here. 
There  is  no  evidence  on  the  Records  that  the  magistrates 
felt  any  embarrassment  about  the  matter.  They  found  in 
their  charter  a  provision  which,  as  they  interpreted  it,  would 
fully  warrant  their  proceedings.  This  provision  made  it 
lawful  — 

"for  the  governors  and  officers  of  the  said  Company,  for  their 
special  defence  and  safety,  to  incounter,  repulse,  repell,  and  resist, 
as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  all  such  person  and  persons  as  shall  at 
tempt  or  enterprise  the  destruction,  invasion,  detriment,  or  annoy 
ance  to  the  said  plantation  or  inhabitants." 

Nor  were  the  magistrates  troubled  by  any  misgiving  that 
they  were  trespassing  beyond  their  bounds  of  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  England.  For,  either  with  or  without  law, 
saving  only  in  the  execution  of  the  last  penalty,  the  magis 
trates  simply  followed  ample  English  precedents  in  their 
treatment  of  the  Quakers. 

The  claim  of  the  magistrates  by  their  Charter  to  exclu 
sive  rights  of  territory  and  habitancy  passed  for  nothing 
with  the  Quakers.  They  regarded  themselves  as  Apostles 
of  the  Light,  and  so,  like  the  sunbeams,  they  had  eminent 
rights  of  entering  and  domain  over  Christendom  and  hea 
thendom.  The  magistrates  from  the  first,  and  continuously, 
tried  to  distinguish  in  their  legislation  and  treatment  be 
tween  those  whom  they  insisted  on  regarding  as  strangers, 
strolling  vagrants,  with  no  errand  here  but  one  of  discord 
and  mischief,  and  such  as  might  catch  the  infection  among 
their  own  people.  But  it  proved  impracticable  to'  follow 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  429 

the  distinction  in  inflicting  penalties,  save  that  neither  of 
the  four  whose  lives  were  taken  from  them  were  resident 
here.  The  Quakers,  with  many  other  troublesome  intruders, 
insisted  that  as  free-born  Englishmen  they  had  a  right  to 
enter  and  traverse  any  portion  of  the  realm.  But  we  should 
be  wholly  inappreciative  of  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  of 
those  whom  it  stirred,  to  expect  of  the  authorities  to  wait 
for  any  special  enactment  in  the  emergency.  They  pro 
ceeded  exactly  as  does  the  Board  of  Health  in  its  sum 
mary  measures  on  learning  of  the  arrival  in  the  harbor 
of  infected  persons,  not  waiting  to  see  if  harm  would  come 
from  their  presence. 

Now,  as  we  have  the  full,  intelligent,  and  judicial  privilege 
of  thoroughly  understanding  and  appreciating  the  motives, 
views,  and  principles  of  both  the  parties  who  were  to  come 
into  collision,  —  as  neither  of  them  did  those  of  the  other 
when  they  were  confronted,  —  let  us  try,  with  all  the  candor 
and  impartiality  we  can  summon  to  guide  us,  to  put  our 
selves  into  their  respective  positions.  What  was  the  state 
of  mind,  the  intent,  the  attitude  of  each  of  them  ?  Allow 
ing  for  the  heat  and  elation  of  zeal  and  the  possible  spirit 
ual  conceit  of  the  first  Quakers  here,  we  must  recognize 
in  them  a  thoroughly  sincere,  pure,  unselfish,  and  heroic 
prompting.  They  knew  very  well,  what  was  so  rife  in  Eng 
land,  that  there  was  in  Masssachusetts  a  rule  of  the  most 
oppressive  and  unrelenting  severity  both  in  civil  and  relig 
ious  administration.  The  English  Court  and  Council  had 
been  beset  by  the  complaints  of  sufferers,  and  one  might 
meet  in  the  streets  with  those  who,  in  telling  their  griev 
ances,  would  bitterly  portray  the  harshness,  bigotry,  and 
cruelty  of  "  the  rule  of  the  Saints."  The  Quakers,  by  tests 
satisfactory  to  themselves,  trusted  themselves  in  distinguish 
ing  between  the  promptings  of  mere  inclination  and  ordi 
nary  motives,  and  their  direct  impulses,  monitions,  and 
inspirations  from  God.  They  were  "  free  "  or  "  not  free  " 
to  do  this  or  that.  Their  own  wills  were  held  or  controlled 


430  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

by  a  power  outside  of  them.  The  Puritans  and  the  Quakers, 
with  equal  sincerity  and  fidelity,  acknowledged  this  control 
ling  sway  over  them,  with  this  extremely  diverse  source  of 
it :  with"  the  Puritan  it  was  the  letter  of  the  Bible ;  with  the 
Quaker  it  was  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit.  The  Quakers 
could  judge  when  they  had  a  Divine  call  to  go  or  stay,  to 
wander  or  abide  in  their  places.  They  affirmed  that  they 
came  here  in  "  the  movings  of  the  Lord."  Messages  also 
were  committed  to  them  to  be  communicated,  and  few  of 
these  were  agreeable  to  those  who  received  them.  They 
had  "burdens  of  the  Lord,"  to  be  relieved  only  by  denun 
ciations  of  judgments  and  calamities.  Under  this  divine 
prompting,  successive  Quakers,  single  or  in  companionship, 
were  "moved  of  the  Lord  to  go  to  Boston,"  there  to  con 
front  the  authorities  and  to  bear  testimony  against  the  aus 
terities  and  formalism,  literalism,  deadness,  and  rottenness 
of  Puritanism.  They  had  large,  free,  enlightening  liberaliz- 
ings,  and  benedictive  truths  and  principles,  to  announce. 
They  were  well  aware  what  a  reception  they  would  meet, 
and  what  treatment  they  would  receive ;  and  they  were 
well  prepared  for  it.  They  would  be  blameless  and  harm 
less  in  their  relation  to  civil  law,  non-resistant  under  vio 
lence  ;  would  pay  no  fines,  swear  no  oaths,  make  no  pledges, 
yield  no  willing  obedience  to  unjust  commands,  and  bear 
their  testimony  till  conscience  within  gave  them  a  full 
discharge. 

The  buffetings  and  inflictions  which  their  fellow-believers 
were  meeting  in  England  assured  them  that  those  who  dared 
to  face  the  concentration  and  intensity  of  Puritanism  here 
would  have  a  hard  warfare.  The  only  weapon  of  offence  or 
defence  they  could  employ  was  the  tongue.  And  this,  with 
the  language  which  it  might  use,  they  did  not  receive  as 
their  own ;  for  while  the  Puritans  regarded  their  utterance 
as  "  set  on  fire  of  hell,"  the  Quakers  believed  it  to  be  taken 
into  the  service  of  God.  Such  was  the  Quakers'  view  of 
their  errand  and  duty  here.  Most  faithfully  and  heroically 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  431 

did  they  discharge  it.  Their  minds  and  consciences  had 
been  opened  to  what  they  believed  to  be  the  shameful  and 
startling  fact  that  the  religion  of  their  time,  which  pretended 
to  stand  for  Christianity,  was  the  merest  sham  and  hypoc 
risy.  The  plainest  teachings  and  doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ, 
like  non-resistance  to  evil,  unworldliness,  seriousness  of 
life,  simplicity  of  speech,  a  prohibition  of  war,  offensive  or 
defensive,  were  with  a  cool  effrontery  pronounced  to  be 
only  "  counsels  of  perfection  "  utterly  impracticable  in  act 
ual  life.  The  Quakers  set  themselves  to  carry  out  those 
counsels  of  perfection,  and  to  allow  that  the  very  least 
portion  of  literal  Christianity  is  impracticable  of  obedience. 
In  the  spirit  of  sincerity,  of  fidelity,  constancy,  and  purity, 
which  animated  and  guided  them,  the  Friends,  as  a  fellow 
ship,  have  come  the  nearest,  both  in  spirit  and  in  practice, 
to  conformity  with  the  Christian  rule  of  life,  of  all  the  sects 
which  have  borne  the  title  of  disciples.  Had  they,  here  or 
elsewhere,  sought  to  establish  a  theocracy,  unlike  that  of 
the  Puritans,  it  would  have  found  its  model  in  the  New 
Testament,  not  in  the  Old.  As  the  oddities,  eccentricities, 
and  extravagances,  which,  so  unfortunately  for  them,  in 
troduced  them  to  ridicule  and  ill  treatment,  have  gradually 
been  dropped  as  purely  trivial  and  wholly  distinguishable 
from  the  vitalities  of  their  system,  the  lofty  principles  and 
truths  for  which  they  secured  an  appreciation  have  been  as 
similated  with  the  tenets  and  practices  of  other  Christian 
fellowships.1 

On  the  other  hand,  how  stood  the  Puritans  to  meet  and 

1  On  Sunday,  Ang.  23,  1887,  the  writer,  in  attendance  at  the  Friends'  wor 
ship  in  their  old  meeting-house  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  where  the  yearly  meeting 
of  the  Society  is  held,  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  distinguish  the  place 
and  the  services  from  those  of  many  other  worshipping  congregations.  There 
was  no  pulpit,  choir,  or  musical  instrument.  But  there  were  raised  seats  from 
which  two  men  and  one  w.oman  offered  earnest  exhortations  and  prayers,  with 
Scripture  readings,  while  three  different  individuals,  in  intervals  of  silence,  sung 
hymn  and  psalm,  others  joining  in.  But  in  the  considerable  congregation  no 
one  of  either  sex  had  any  distinguishing  garb. 


432  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

deal  with  the  encounter  before  them  ?  The}7  also  had  con 
sciences  and  convictions,  most  intense  in  their  action  and 
assurance.  They  believed  they  had  the  long  start  and  ad 
vantage  over  the  Quakers  in  having  entered  into  a  covenant 
of  their  own  with  God,  through  the  guidance  and  pledge 
of  a  sacred  book.  They  had  a  heritage  to  defend  and  enjoy. 
At  their  own  charges  they  had  become  possessed  of  certain 
rights  of  property,  territory,  and  authority.  For  more  than 
a  score  of  years  they  had  been  laying  the  foundations  of 
order  and  government  in  one  patch  of  a  vast  wilderness, 
meeting  a  constant  succession  of  harassing  and  threaten 
ing  experiences.  They  had  planted  ,  themselves  upon  a 
solemn  purpose  of  a  commonwealth  administered  by  "  the 
laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances  of  God,"  and,  still  in  the 
first  stage  of  the  experiment,  had  as  yet  no  misgiving  that 
it  was  to  fail.  The  all-essential  condition  of  their  security 
and  success  was  in  a  general  if  not  a  unanimous  adhesion 
to  their  covenant,  and  so  to  each  other,  without  discord  or 
schism.  What  they  had  most  to  dread  was  contention 
among  themselves,  contempt  of  authority,  and  sedition. 
They  would  not  go  out  of  their  bounds  to  molest  others ; 
and  the  wide-reaclnng  continent  afforded  to  others  free 
opportunities  for  trying  their  own  experiments. 

Such  were  the  Quakers  and  the  Puritans  as  they  met  in 
an  antagonism  fully  understood  and  appreciated  by  us, 
but  not  at  all  so  by  each  other.  The  Quaker  came,  with 
no  intent  whatever  of  peaceful  and  ^permanent  residence 
and  citizenship,  or  to  cast  in  his  lot  and  interest  with  the 
colonists.  His  errand  was  a  transient  one,  and  the  avowed 
purpose  of  it  was  sure  to  rouse  ill-feeling,  bad  passions, 
distraction,  and  a  revolutionary  convulsion  in  society.  If 
Winthrop  said  truly  of  the  Antinomians,  that  their  spirit 
and  principles  were  such  that  they  could  not  peaceably 
abide  here,  what  was  to  be  said  of  wandering  Quakers  who, 
after  bearing  their  testimony  and  scattering  their  inflam 
matory  books,  should  watch  to  see  the  mischief  that  would 


THE  INTRUSION  OP  THE   QUAKERS.  433 

follow  ?  The  alternative  seemed  to  the  authorities  in  pos 
session  here  a  very  -simple  but  a  very  peremptory  one. 
Either  they  must  at  once  abandon  their  precious,  endeared, 
and  consecrated  system,  —  their  covenant  and  recognition 
of  it  in  worship,  —  their  prayers,  sermons,  church  rela 
tion  and  ordinances,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  their 
educated  ministry  and  their  weapons  of  defence,  or  say  to 
the  intruders,  "  Go  away,  and  stay  away.  We  have  no 
place  for  you  here.  Go  unharmed  now  ;  but  if  you  persist 
in  annoying  and  exasperating  us,  it  shall  be  at  the  peril  of 
your  lives."  The  Quakers  chose  to  meet  that  peril,  and 
they  triumphed  gloriously  over  it. 

It  would  be  equally  out  of  place  and  wholly  futile  to  in 
troduce  the  narrative  that  is  to  follow,  with  an  attempt  to 
suggest  anything  in  relief  or  justification  of  the  measures 
of  repression  and  infliction  so  fatuously  adopted  by  the 
magistrates  in  dealing  with  the  dreaded  intruders.  By 
our  standard  of  right,  justice,  and  expediency,  thrown  back 
nearly  two  and  a  half  centuries,  not  a  word  can  be  said 
even  in  palliation  of  the  course  pursued.  The  prompting 
comes  to  all  of  us,  under  our  enlightenment  and  enfran 
chisement,  to  ask,  Why  were  not  the  intruders  allowed 
to  come  on  shore,  bear  their  testimony,  and  scatter  their 
tracts  ?  Their  message  would  have  been  soon  told.  If  there 
had  been  a  prospect  of  its  being  kindly  received,  it  might 
have  been  more  courteously  spoken,  and  would  certainly 
have  done  the  Puritans  much  good.  But  that  question  put 
to  the  magistrates  at  the  tim6  would  have  been  very  much 
as  if  one  should  ask  those  of  our  time,  Why  not  allow  a 
ship-load  of  immigrants  infected  with  the  small-pox  to 
land  and  circulate  through  our  streets  ?  Tasking  as  the 
effort  is,  we  must  endeavor  to  appreciate  the  view  of  their 
obligations  taken  by  the  magistrates  themselves  as  set  to 
administer  a  Biblical  commonwealth.  During  the  inter 
mission  of  the  General  Court  all  responsibility  lay  with 
them.  We  give  them  the  benefit  of  all  the  grace  possible, 

28 


434  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

when  we  recognize  their  own  resolute  and  dogged  purpose 
at  all  costs  and  hazards  to  do  what  they  regarded  as  a 
clear  and  positive  duty,  assumed  by  oath  for  an  imperilled 
community.  We  can  easily  detect  how  soon  and  how 
fatally  there  mingled  with  this  sense  of  the  duty  of  magis 
tracy  an  exasperated  passion,  coining  in  through  the  ever- 
open  inlets  of  human  nature,  at  the  bold  contempt  and 
defiance  of  their  authority.  The  discomfiture  of  the  ex 
periment  in  government  which  they  were  trying,  august 
and  righteous  as  they  regarded  it,  could  come  only  through 
its  proved  impracticability,  as  involving  the  harshest 
bigotry  and  a  barbarous  cruelty. 

As  there  was  no  special  law  yet  on  their  statute-book 
against  Quakers,  —  except  as  inferential  from  that  passed 
in  the  Antiriomian  troubles,  —  the  magistrates,  in  a  decla 
ration  published  three  years  afterwards,  avowed  that  they 
proceeded  upon  the  full  knowledge,  derived  from  what  had 
transpired  in  their  mother  country,  of  the  character  and 
the  pestilent  principles  of  the  Quakers.  On  a  Fast  Day, 
observed  twenty  years  afterward,  in  the  desolation  of  King 
Philip's  War,  one  of  the  preachers  ascribed  the  calamities 
of  the  country  as  a  judgment  of  God  on  it  for  not  having 
dealt  more  severely  and  thoroughly  with  the  Quakers. 

The  two  women  in  the  harbor  were  Ann  Austin,  de 
scribed  as  "  stricken  in  years,  and  the  mother  of  five  chil 
dren,"  having  left  her  family  in  England  for  her  mission, 
and  Mary  Fisher,  "  a  maiden  Friend."  Though  the  recep 
tion  of  the  latter  in  Boston*  was  to  be  only  inhospitable, 
her  previous  sufferings  in  England  had  been  protracted  and 
very  cruel.  She  had  appeared  there  in  1652,  when  about 
thirty  years  of  age,  as  a  minister  among  the  Friends ;  and, 
for  addressing  a  public  meeting,  had  been  imprisoned  in 
York  Castle  sixteen  months.  And  again,  for  preaching 
with  another  woman  at  the  gate  of  Sydney  College,  in  1653, 
she  and  her  companion  were  whipped  "  until  the  blood  ran 
down  their  bodies."  After  two  more  imprisonments  for 


THE   INTRUSION   OP   THE   QUAKERS.  435 

speaking  in  "  steeple-houses,"  Mary  Fisher  had  "  a  religious 
call "  to  go  to  Barbadoes.  A  letter  from  her,  written  from 
that  place,  to  George  Fox,  addressed  "  My  Dear  Father," 
and  expressing  her  zeal  for  her  work,  is  extant.  As  she 
never  returned  here  after  her  banishment,  reference  may 
be  made  to  her  interesting  subsequent  career.  Being 
carried  from  here  to  Barbadoes,  after  a  visit  to  England 
in  1657,  and  another  in  the  next  year  to  Barbadoes,  she 
started  in  1660  for  her  mission,  on  a  perilous  and  difficult 
journey  to  the  Orient.  She  found  her  way  to  Adrianople, 
where  she  gave  her  testimony,  through  an  interpreter,  to 
the  "Grand  Turk,"  the  Sultan  Mahomet  IY.  She  was 
civilly  treated  by  him,  the  assumption  being  that  she  was 
insane,  and  therefore,  as  the  Turks  believed,  inspired.  She 
parried  with  skill  the  test  question,  What  she  thought 
of  Mahomet  ?  by  replying  that  she  did  not  know  him. 
Returning  safely  to  England,  she  labored  long  and  zealously 
in  her  Society,  and  was  twice  married,  coming  with  her 
second  husband  to  America.  She  is  mentioned  as  living  in 
Charleston,  S.  C.,  in  1697,  then  a  widow.1 

Ann  Austin  was  imprisoned  "in  a  filthy  gaol"  in  London 
in  1659,  and  died  there  of  the  terrible  plague  in  1665. 

As  Governor  Endicott  was  absent  on  the  arrival  of  the 
vessel,  Lieutenant-Go vernor  Bellingham  sent  an  officer 
on  board,  who  brought  the  women  with  their  effects  on 
shore  to  the  prison.  About  a  hundred  books  or  tracts 
were  taken  from  them,  which  were  burned  by  order  in  the 
market-place.  In  conformity 'with  the  dismal  superstition 
of  the  time  in  all  Christendom  that  such  persons  as  the 
prisoners  might  be  bewitched,  some  women  were  sent  to 
the  jail  on  the  revolting  errand  to  follow  the  usual  English 
judicial  process  in  searching  their  bodies  for  evidence  that 
the  Evil  One  statedly  drew  nutriment  from  them.  A  wart 
or  a  mole  was  a  perilous  disfigurement  in  those  times. 
Happily  no  such  blemish  was  found. 

1  Bowden's  Society  of  Friends  in  America,  i.  31. 


436  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

I  have  before  me  a  manuscript  of  some  hundred  and 
fifty  pages,  containing  a  transcript  made  by  me  many  years 
ago  from  a  collection  of  loose  papers  gathered  into  a  vol 
ume,  now  among  the  archives  in  the  State  House,  of  legal 
proceedings  against  the  Quakers.  The  Quaker  historians 
do  not  seem  to  have  had  knowledge  of  these  papers.  They 
supply  many  interesting  facts,  of  which  I  shall  make  use. 
The  first  of  them  gives  us  the  action  of  the  Council,  which 
had  authority  when  the  General  Court  was  not  in  session, 
taken  immediately  on  the  known  presence  of  the  Quakers ; 
as  follows  :  — 

llth  July,  1656.  Voted  by  the  Council.  Present,  the  Governor, 
Deputy-Governor,  Sam'l  Symonds,  Capt.  Gookin,  Major  Willard, 
Major  Atherton. 

Whereas  there  are  several  laws  long  since  made  and  published 
in  this  Jurisdiction,  bearing  testimony  against  heretics  and  erro 
neous  persons,  yet  notwithstanding,  Simon  Kempthorne  of  Charles- 
town,  Master  of  the  Ship  Swallow  of  Boston,  knowingly  hath 
brought  into  this  Jurisdiction  from  the  Island  of  Barbadoes  two 
women,  who  name  themselves  Mary  Fisher,  and  Anne,  the  wife 
of  one  Austin :  being  of  that  sort  of  people  commonly  known  by 
the  name  of  Quakers,  who,  upon  examination,  are  found  not  only 
to  be  transgressors  of  the  former  laws,  but  do  hold  many  very 
dangerous,  heretical,  and  blasphemous  opinions,  and  they  also 
acknowledged  they  came  hither  purposely  to  propagate  their  said 
errors  and  heresies,  bringing  with  them  and  spreading  here  sundry 
books  wherein  are  contained  many  most  corrupt,  pernicious,  heret 
ical,  blasphemous  doctrines,  contrary  to  the  truth  of  the  Gospel 
professed  among  us:  The  Council,  therefore,  tendering  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  peace  and  truth  enjoyed  and  professed  in  this 
country  amongst  the  Churches  of  Christ,  do  hereby  order,  1.  That 
all  such  corrupt  books  as  shall  be  found  upon  search  to  be  brought 
in  and  spread  by  the  forenamed  persons,  be  forthwith  burnt  and 
destroyed  by  the  common  executioner.  2.  That  the  said  Mary 
and  Anne  be  kept  in  close  prison,  and  none  admitted  to  commu 
nication  with  them  without  leave  from  the  Governor,  or  Deputy- 
Governor,  or  any  two  Magistrates,  to  prevent  the  spreading  of 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE  QUAKERS.  437 

their  corrupt  opinions,  until  such  time  as  they  be  delivered  by  the 
authorities  aboard  some  vessel  to  be  transported  out  of  the  coun 
try.  3.  That  the  said  Simon  Kempthorne  is  enjoined  speedily 
and  directly  to  transport  or  cause  to  be  transported  the  said 
persons  from  hence  into  Barbadoes  from  whence  they  came,  de 
fraying  all  the  charges  of  their  imprisonment:  and  for  the  effectual 
performance  whereof  he  is  to  give  Security  to  the  Secretary  in  a 
bond  of  £100  Sterling,  and  upon  his  refusal  to  give  such  security 
he  is  to  be  committed  to  prison  till  he  do  it. 

E.  R.,  Secretary. 

The  Council  seem  to  have  assumed  that  Kempthorne 
knew  the  offensive  character  of  his  two  passengers. 

The  women  were  not  scourged.  As  they  "  were  not  free 
in  mind"  to  work  for  the  jailer  for  their  subsistence,  nor 
allowed  to  buy  food  with  their  own  money,  they  were  in 
danger  of  famishing.  When  brought  before  the  magis 
trates'  Court,  their  "  Thee  and  Thou  "  was  held  to  be  suffi 
cient  proof  of  who  and  what  they  were,  and  they  were 
replied  to  with  rude  and  harsh  words.  Then  at  once  the 
authorities  had  to  meet  the  first  manifestation  of  what  they 
greatly  dreaded  as  an  "  infection,"  —  sympathy  engaged  for 
the  sufferers  on  the  part  of  citizens  and  church  members. 
None  of  this  was  shown  by  the  jailer,  who  was  both  of 
these.  But  so  also  was  a  worthy  man,  Nicholas  Upshall, 
sixty  years  of  age,  with  a  family,  respected  in  the  com 
munity.  He  made  a  protest,  at  first  privately,  and  after 
ward  publicly,  for  which  he  was  rebuked.  He  did  more ; 
for  he  gave  the  jailer  five  shillings  a  week  for  being  allowed 
to  give  food  to  the  prisoners.  Upshall  is  worthily  remem 
bered  by  the  Friends  as  being  the  first  in  a  number  steadily 
increasing,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  authorities,  of 
those  among  the  inhabitants  who  showed  this  sympathy.1 

1  His  wife,  however,  did  not  accord  with  him.  In  the  State  Archives, 
as  addressed  to  the  Court  of  Assistants,  in  1658,  is  "  The  humble  petition  of 
Dorothy  Upshall.  Humbly  sheweth,  That  whereas  your  petitioner's  husband, 
in  October,  1656,  did  not  only  unadvisedly,  but  sinfully,  reproach  the  honored 


438  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

To  them,  either  as  boldly  questioning  and  rebuking,  or 
as  quietly  discountenancing  the  cruel  treatment  of  the 
Quakers,  as  we  shall  see  farther  on,  and  not,  as  has  been 
assumed,  to  the  interposition  of  the  King,  Charles  II.,  is  to 
be  ascribed  the  curb  put  upon  the  will  of  the  magistrates. 
The  women  were  in  prison  five  weeks  before  the  sailing  of 
their  ship.  But  one  week  before  their  release  another 
vessel  had  brought  eight  more  Quakers,  four  men  and  four 
women,  who  were  imprisoned  in  like  manner  for  eleven 
weeks  by  those  whom  Bishop  calls  "  the  refuse  of  man 
kind," — a  complimentary  description  of  the  Puritans.  For 
two  successive  days  the  magistrates  and  Elder  Norton  held 
conferences  with  these  prisoners,  'the  discussion  bearing 
principally  on  the  point,  Whether  the  Scriptures  are  the 
only  rule  and  guide  of  life,  or  subordinate  to  the  quick- 
enings  of  the  Inner  Light?  Norton  seems  to  have  been 
more  docile  than  were  the  magistrates  under  the  Quakers' 
pleading.  The  captain  of  the  vessel  was  put  under  bonds 
to  remove  them  and  to  bring  no  more.  One  Richard 
Smith,  of  Long  Island,  a  fellow-passenger,  reputed  a 
"  Proselite,"  venturing  to  speak  in  the  meeting-house  after 
service,  was  imprisoned  and  sent  home  by  water.  A  fine 
was  imposed  upon  ship-masters  who  should  bring  any 
known  to  be  Quakers.  They  were  released  from  this 
fine  on  showing  that  they  had  erred  in  ignorance. 

On  the  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  Oct.  14, 1656,  was 
enacted  the  first  law  against  the  intruders.1  Parts  of  this 
must  be  verbally  quoted,  if  only  that  its  epithets  may  serve 
as  the  embers  of  the  fire. 

magistrates,  and  spake  against  that  wholesome  law  to  prevent  the  coming  in 
amongst  the  good  people  of  this  land  such  as  are  notable  deceivers,"  etc. 
She  expresses  her  own  warm  satisfaction  "  with  the  truth  and  ordinances  here 
profest,  so  dear  and  precious  to  Tier  soul,"  etc.  She  is  distressed  in  the  sup 
port  of  her  family,  and  in  providing  for  the  support  of  her  husband,  banished 
and  fined  £20.  The  magistrates  agree  that  the  remainder  of  the  fine  not  yet 
paid,  shall  be  settled  on  the  petitioner,  not  to  go  for  the  use  of  her  husband. 
1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  pp.  277,  278. 


• 


THE  INTRUSION  OP  THE  QUAKERS.  439 

"  Whereas  there  is  a  cursed  sect  of  haereticks  lately  risen  up 
in  the  world,  which  are  commonly  called  Quakers,  who  take  uppon 
them  to  be  immediately  sent  of  God,  and  infallibly  assisted  by  the 
spirit  to  speake  and  write  blasphemouth  opinions,  despising  gov 
ernment  and  the  order  of  God  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
speaking  evill  of  dignities,  reproaching  and  reviling  magistrates 
and  ministers,  seeking  to  turne  the  people  from  the  faith  and  gaine 
proselites  to  theire  pernicious  waies,  this  Court,  taking  into  serious 
consideration  the  premises,  and  to  prevent  the  like  mischiefe  as 
by  theire  meanes  is  wrought  in  our  native  land,  doth  heereby  order, 
and  by  the  authoritie  of  this  Court  be  it  ordered  and  enacted, 
that  any  commander  of  a  vessel  that  shall  bring  into  this  juris 
diction  any  knowne  Quaker  or  Quakers,  or  any  other  blasphe 
mous  haereticks  as  aforesaid,  shall  pay  the  fine  of  £100,  except  it 
appeare  that  he  wanted  true  knowledge  or  information  of  theire 
being  such ;  and  in  that  case,  he  hath  libertie  to  cleare  himself  by 
his  oath,  when  sufficient  proofe  to  the  contrary  is  wanting ; "  for 
default  of  payment  or  security  to  be  imprisoned ;  then  to  give 
bonds  to  carry  them  to  the  place  whence  he  brought  them. 

"  Any  Quaker  coming  into  this  jurisdiction  shall  be  forthwith 
committed  to  the  house  of  correction,  and  at  their  entrance  to  be 
severely  whipt,  and  by  the  master  thereof  to  be  kept  constantly  to 
worke,  and  none  suffered  to  converse  or  speak  with  them  during 
the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  which  shall  be  no  longer  than 
necessitie  requireth.  .  .  .  And  further,  it  is  ordered,  if  any  person 
shall  knowingly  import  into  any  harbor  of  this  jurisdiction  any 
Quakers'  bookes  or  writings  concerning  their  divilish  opinions, 
shall  pay  for  every  such  booke  or  writting,  being  legally  prooved 
against  him  or  them,  the  somme  of  five  pounds ;  an,d  whosoever 
shall  disperse  or  conceale  any  such  booke  or  writing,  and  it  be 
found  with  him  or  her,  in  his  or  her  house,  and  shall  not  immedi 
ately  deliver  in  the  same  to  the  next  magistrate,  shall  forfeit  and 
pay  five  pounds.  Any  person  proved  to  have  the  haeretical  opin 
ions  of  the  said  Quakers,  or  their  books  or  papers,  shall  be  fined 
forty  shillings ;  for  the  second  offence  four  pounds ;  for  still 
offending,  to  be  imprisoned  till  banished.  Lastly,  it  is  heereby 
ordered,  that  what  person  or  persons  soever  shall  revile  the  office 
or  person  of  magistrates  or  ministers,  as  is  usuall  with  the  Quakers, 


440  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

such  person  or  persons  shalbe  severely  whipt,  or  pay  the  somme 
of  five  pounds.  This  order  was  published  21  :  8  m.  56,  in  severall 
places  of  Boston,  by  beate  of  drumme." 

The  next  order  to  this  in  the  Court  Book,  is  one  giving 
to  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  author 
ity  to  punish  the  misdemeanors  of  the  youth  by  fine,  or  by 
whipping  in  the  hall. 

As  the  drummer  passed  the  house  of  Upshall  proclaim 
ing  this  law,  he  uttered  a  bold  protest  against  it,  for 
which,  as  previously  mentioned,  he  was  fined,  imprisoned, 
and  banished. 

The  conditions  to  which  prisoners,  like  the  Quakers, 
were  subjected,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  pro 
visions.  A  few  months  before  the  first  coming  of  Quakers 
the  Court  had  ordered  that  the  selectmen  of  each  town 
should  provide  for  the  prison  or  county  house  of  correc 
tion  a  stock  of  hemp,  flax,  or  other  materials,  the  value  of 
the  labor  on  which  done  by  the  prisoners  should  accrue 
to  the  use  of  the  master.  Out  of  this  he  was  "  to  allow 
only  so  much  as  will  keepe  the  delinquent  with  necessary 
bread  and  water,  or  other  meane  food,  as  four  pence  out 
of  the  shilling  earned  by  his  or  her  labour."  On  coming 
into  the  prison  the  delinquent  was  to  receive  ten  stripes, 
and  then  to  be  employed  by  a  daily  stint.  "  If  he  or  she  be 
stcjjorne,  disorderly,  or  idle,"  the  master  should  "  abridge 
them  of  part  of  their  usuall  food,  or  give  them  meet  cor 
rection."  The  Quakers  refused  to  work  for  the  benefit 
of  the  jailer  while  receiving  such  poor  commons.1 

Next  appeared  Ann  Burden,  coming  from  England,  as 
she  said,  to  collect  dues  of  her  husband.  With  her  was 
Mary  Dyer,  "  passing  through  to  Rhode  Island,"  whither 
she  had  gone  from  Boston  in  the  Antinomian  times.  Win- 
throp  described  her  then  as  "  a  very  proper  and  fair  woman, 
much  infected  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  errours,  and  very 

1  Records,  iii.  399. 


THE   INTRUSION  OF  THE   QUAKERS.  441 

censorious  and  troublesome,  she  being  of  a  very  proud 
spirit,  and  much  addicted  to  revelations."  l  She  had  be 
come  an  object  of  dread  in  Boston,  because  of  the  fright 
connected  with  a  misfortune  in  maternity.  She  is  yet  to 
appear  tragically  in  this  record.  Both  these  women  were 
imprisoned  and  sent  away.  August  29,  Mary  Clark,  leav 
ing  her  family  in  England,  had  come  here,  as  she  said, 
with  "  a  message  from  the  Lord."  She  fared  all  the  worse 
for  that  claim,  receiving  twenty  stripes  and  being  sent  off. 
Sept.  21,  1657,  Christopher  Holder  and  John  Copeland 
"bore  testimony  in  Salem  Church,"  after  the  service,  and 
received  violent  personal  treatment.  Being  sent  to  Boston 
prison,  they  each  suffered  thirty  stripes,  and  were  confined 
nine  weeks,  nearly  famished  and  without  fire  in  wintry 
weather.  A  sympathizer  in  the  meeting,  Sam  Shattuck, 
was  imprisoned  in  Boston,  whipped,  and  banished.  Lau 
rence  and  Cassandra  Southwick,  of  Salem,  "  an  aged, 
grave  couple,"  church  members,  for  u  entertaining  two 
strangers,"  and  the  wife  for  approving  "  an  heretical 
paper,"  were  imprisoned.  Richard  Dowdney,  coming  from 
England,  was  arrested  at  Dedham,  taken  to  Boston,  re 
ceived  thirty  stripes,  was  deprived  of  his  tracts,  and  sent 
off  with  four  others,  threatened  with  loss  of  ears,  after  the 
English  fashion,  if  they  returned. 

Sympathy  for  the  sufferers  was  rapidly  strengthened  at 
Salem,  dividing  the  flock  in  the  meeting-house,  so  that  the 
Friends  began  to  hold  worship  of  their  own  in  the  woods 
and  at  private  houses.  They  were  followed  up  there  by 
the  magistrate  Hathorne,  and  by  the  law  of  1646  were 
fined  five  shillings  a  week  each  for  absence  from  the  as 
sembly.  Bishop  informs  his  readers  that  Queen  Elizabeth 
had  been  content  with  exacting  only  twelve  pence  a  week 
for  this  offence.  Many  of  these  Salem  Friends  were  impris 
oned  in  Boston,  and  confined  when  they  were  most  needed 
at  home  for  farm  labors,  while  distraint  was  laid  upon 

1  Winthrop,  i.  261. 


442  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

their  property  for  payment  of  fines.  Even  the  purpose 
was  entertained  by  the  Court  in  May,  1659,  of  selling  one 
or  more  for  transportation  to  Virginia  or  Barbadoes ;  but 
it  failed  of  execution,  for  no  mariner  would  take  them. 
"  Horred  Gardner,  mother  of  many  children,"  came  with 
a  nursing  babe  from  Newport  to  Wey mouth,  and  with  her 
servant-girl  was  imprisoned  in  Boston,  receiving  ten  lashes. 
Sarah  Gibbens  and  Dorothy  Waugh,  April  13, 1658,  "spoke 
in  Boston  meeting."  They  were  imprisoned,  famished,  and 
whipped.  Thomas  Harris,  coming  from  Barbadoes  through 
Rhode  Island,  "spoke  in  Boston  Meeting,"  denouncing 
Divine  judgments.  He  was  imprisoned,  whipped,  and 
"  would  have  starved,"  had  he  not  been  fed  through  the 
window  at  night  by  sympathizers.  William  Brend  and 
William  Leddra,  "  moved  of  the  Lord,"  after  visiting  Sa 
lem,  "  had  a  conference  with  a  priest  at  Newbury,"  and 
with  others  were  sent  to  Boston  prison  and  whipped.  The 
people  protested  so  strongly  against  the  unmerciful  casti- 
gation  .of  Brend,  that  the  jailer  was  saved  from  process 
only  by  the  intervention  of  Elder  Norton.  The  Boston 
Thursday  Lecture  furnished  a  favorite  opportunity  for  the 
harangues  of  the  Friends,  men  and  women,  who  insisted 
upon  appearing  there,  though  protesting  that  they  could 
not  join  in  the  worship.  The  magistrates  became  exas 
perated  beyond  measure,  and  were  at  their  wits'  end  by 
being  so  defied.  Their  law  had  provided  for  a  riddance 
from  their  tormentors  only  for  such  as  came  in  by  sea. 
But  when  they  flocked  in  from  Rhode  Island,  as  "  a  back 
door,"  no  one  was  chargeable  for  removing  them.  We 
have  to  look  to  the  original  Quaker  tracts  for  details,  facts, 
and  speeches  not  to  be  found  in  the  historic  compends,  to 
apprehend  fully  the  goadings,  insults,  extravagances,  and 
denunciations  by  which  magistrates,  ministers,  and  con 
gregations  were  infuriated  against  the  intruders.  As  was 
remarked  before,  the  early  Quakers,  either  from  choice  or 
from  circumstances,  were  known  and  made  odious  by  their 


THE    INTRUSION    OP   THE   QUAKERS.  443 

crotchets  and  oddities.  Undoubtedly  these  stood  in  the 
way  of  many  who  observed  their  fantastic  ways,  and  pre 
vented  even  a  patient,  much  more  a  receptive,  spirit  in 
listening  to  the  noble  lessons,  the  large  and  edifying  truths 
from  Quaker  lips,  which  they  had  themselves  reached.  The 
Puritans  looked  with  utter  contempt  upon  the  "  theology  " 
of  the  Quakers,  and  did  not  think  it  worth  listening  to. 
Associating  theology,  as  the  Puritans  did,  with  profound 
linguistic  learning  in  the  rigid  literalism  of  the  Scriptures, 
they  were  confronted  by  those  whom  they  most  unjustly 
regarded  as  only  ranters  and  scoffers  for  claiming  a  spir 
itual  illumination  as  a  key  to  opening  those  Scriptures. 
The  two  methods  of  dealing  with  the  Book  were  radically 
opposite  and  irreconcilable.  The  Quakers  were  never 
permitted,  as  the  Antinomians  and  Baptists  had  been,  to 
have  anything  like  a  free  hearing  or  debate,  at  church 
meetings,  in  a  synod,  or  in  the  Court.  This  was  with 
held  from  them  for  two  reasons.  First,  those  other  her 
etics  were  residents, 'citizens,  and  church  members,  other 
wise  in  good  standing,  while  the  Quakers  were  strangers, 
"  roaming  vagrants."  And  again,  the  illiteracy,  the  offen 
sive  language  and  behavior  of  the  Quakers  made  them 
personally  so  odious,  and  the  wild  notions  "  broached  "  by 
them  were  so  exasperating,  as  to  make  the  Puritans  un 
willing  to  put  themselves  on  the  level  of  a  discussion. 
The  assertion  of  the  Quakers  that  their  journeys,  errands, 
and  messages  were  assigned  to  them  by  private,  direct 
personal  inspirations  from  God,  was  to  the  Puritans  sim 
ply  blasphemous.  They  themselves  could  know  "  the  mind 
of  God"  only  through  a  channel  common  to  them  and 
to  all  others,  —  the  Bible.  But  no  single  grievance  fills 
so  large  a  place  in  the  altercations  of  both  parties  as 
the  importance  assigned  to  the  "  Hat."  The  Quakers  in 
their  tracts  earnestly  and  often  peevishly  complain  that 
the  keeping  on  of  their  hats  in  courts  and  meeting 
houses,  before  they  had  even  opened  their  lips,  or  their 


444  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

opinions  were  really  known,  was  enough  to  insure  for 
them  condemnation  and  abuse.  It  was  so,  and  it  was 
because  they  chose  to  have  it  so.  The  hat  seemed  to 
signify  defiance  and  contempt,  as  if  it  said,  "  I  am  as 
good  as  you  are :  I  owe  you  no  respect  or  deference,  and 
I  will  prove  this  by  insulting  you."  The  habit  and  the 
attitude  were  taken  as  a  gross  breach  of  manners,  or  gro- 
tesqueness  of  costume ;  it  would  in  our  time  mark  a  fool, 
a  crank,  or  an  insane  person.  As  to  the  "  testimonies  " 
borne  by  the  Quakers  in  meeting-houses,  courts,  and  other 
places,  taking  only  their  own  reports  of  them,  we  can  well 
understand  how  the  truth  and  fresh  inspiration  of  some  of 
the  utterances  would  pass  for  nothing  because  of  the  rant, 
the  bitterness,  the  scorn,  the  fierce  and  withering  denun 
ciations  connected  with  them.  The  most  offensive  epithet 
to  be  used  for  an  elder  or  minister  was  that  of  "  priest." 
Because  the  Puritan  worship  proceeded  by  form  and  rou 
tine,  it  was  pronounced  "  lifeless,  dead,  Pharisaical,  and 
without  power  to  instruct  or  edify."  The  "  ordinances," 
the  most  sacred  rites  of  the  Puritans,  —  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  —  were  spiritualized  by  the  Quakers  into 
disuse.  Wandering  through  lonely  woods,  with  his  mus 
ings,  and  reaching  stopping-points  for  mission-work  in  his 
Heaven-guided  journeys,  the  Quaker  would  appear  on  the 
scene,  with  a  fervor  and  elation  of  spirit,  to  give  forth  his 
repressed  exaltation. 

What  utterances  would  come  from  the  mouths  of  those 
whose  pens  wrote  matter  like  the  following,  may  be  readily 
inferred  from  a  tract,  whose  title  is  here  given,  with  ex 
tracts  from  it,  from  a  copy  which  I  transcribed  from  the 
original  in  the  British  Museum  : l  — 

"  N.  England's  Ensigne :  It  being  the  Account  of  Cruelty,  the 
Professors'  Pride,  and  the  Articles  of  their  Faith,  Signified  in 
Characters  written  in  Blood,  wickedly  begun,  barbarously  con- 

1  Collection  marked  —^— 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  445 

tinued,  and  inhumanly  finished  (so  far  as  they  have  gone)  by  the 
present  power  of  darkness  possest  in  the  Priests  and  Rulers  in 
N.  England,  with  the  Dutch  also  inhabiting  the  same  land.  In 
a  bloody  and  cruel  birth  which  the  Husband  to  the  Whore  of 
Babylon  hath  brought  forth  by  ravishing  and  torturing  the  seed 
of  the  Virgin  of  Israel.  Happy  are  they  who  are  blest  out  of  the 
hands  of  Hypocrites,  by  whom  my  Saviour  suffered.  This  being 
an  account  of  the  sufferings  sustained  by  us  in  N.  England  (with 
the  Dutch),  the  most  part  of  it  in  these  last  two  yeers,  1657-58. 
With  a  letter  to  John  Indicot  and  John  Norton,  Governor  and 
Chief  Priest  of  Boston,  and  another  to  the  Town  of  Boston.  Also, 
the  several  late  conditions  of  a  friend  upon  Road  Island  before, 
in,  and  after  distraction ;  with  some  Quaeries  unto  all  sorts  of 
People,  who  want  that  which  we  have.  Written  at  sea  by  us 
whom  the  Wicked  in  scorn  call  Quakers,  in  the  2d  month  of  the 
year  1659."  London,  1659. 

The  Preface  describes  the  people  of  New  England  as 
"  Cruel  English  Jewes,  the  most  vainest  and  beastliest 
place  of  all  Bruits,  the  most  publicly  profane,  and  the 
most  covertly  corrupt,"  etc.  The  treatment  of  the  writer 
up  to  the  date  already  reached  is  related.  The  suffer 
ings  of  Robert  Hodgstone,  from  the  Dutch  at  Hempstead, 
L.  I.,  are  described.  He  was  beaten  with  a  pitched  rope, 
one  hundred  blows,  and  chained  to  work  with  a  wheel 
barrow  in  a  hot  sun.  "  Yet  his  mouth  was  opened  to  such 
as  came  about  him."  We  may  be  sure  of  that.  "  15th  of 
6th  month,  1657,  two  of  us,  Holder  and  Copeland,  were 
moved  of  the  Lord  to  go  to  Martin's  Vineyard.  After  the 
Priest,  Thomas  Maho  [Mayhew],  had  done  his  speech,  one 
of  us  unspake  a  few  words."  They  were  thrust  out,  and 
the* next  day  were  sent  off  and  landed  by  an  Indian  at 
Sandwich,  causing  great  excitement.  A  warrant  was  is 
sued  against  them  as  "  extravagant  persons."  Copeland  had 
a  dispute  with  Stone,  "  the  Priest  of  Hartford."  We  then 
have  the  following  description  of  a  New  England  church 
member,  which  doubtless  had  its  counterpart  in  life  : 


446  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

"  A  man  that  hath  a  covetous  and  deceitful  rotten  heart,  lying 
lips,  which  abound  among  them,  and  a  smooth,  fawning,  flattering- 
tongue,  and  short  hair,  and  a  deadly  enmity  against  those  that 
are  called  Quakers,  and  others  that  oppose  their  wayes,  —  such  a 
hypocrite  is  a  fit  man  to  be  a  member  of  any  New-England  Church. 
And  touching  the  matter  and  manner  of  their  worship,  it  is  most 
like  the  rigid  Presbyters,  so  called,  but  a  little  differing  from  the 
late  Bishops,  onely  they  use  not  their  blind  service  and  surp-cloaths. 
J.  Rouse  and  H.  Norton  were  moved  to  go  to  their  great  meeting 
house  at  Boston  upon  one  of  their  Lector  dayes,  where  we  found 
John  Norton,  their  teacher,  set  up,  who,  like  a  babling  Pharisee, 
run  over  a  vain  repetition  near  an  hour  long  (like  an  impudent 
smooth-faced  harlot  who  was  telling  her  Paramoors  a  long  fair 
story  of  her  husband's  kindness,  while  nothing  but  wantonness 
and  wickedness  is  in  her  heart)  ;  when  his  Glass  was  out  he  begun 
his  sermon,  wherein,  amongst  many  lifeless  expressions,  he  spake 
much  of  the  danger  of  these  who  are  called  Quakers  :  some  of  his 
hearers  gaped  on  him  as  if  they  expected  honey  should  have 
dropped  from  his  lips ;  and  amongst  other  of  his  vain  conceits  he 
uttered  this  (whereby  he  plainly  discovered  the  blindness  and  rot 
tenness  of  his  heart),  that  the  Justice  of  God  is  the  Armor  of  the 
Devil,  the  which,  if  true,  then  is  the  Devil  sometimes  covered  with 
Justice,  which  is  more  than  ever  I  heard  any  of  his  servants  say 
in  his  behalf  before,"  etc. 

"On  the  13th  of  2d  month,  1658,  S.  Gibbens  and  D.  Waugh 
[two  women]  spoke  at  Lecture." 

I  do  not  know  whether  these  Quakers  spoke  the  words, 
or  whether  they  are  the  report  of  Bishop,  in  tlie  terse 
English  sentence,  —  "They  heard  the  Grave  uttering  her 
voice,  and  Death  feeding  Death,  through  your  painted 
Sepulchre,  John  Norton."  1 

The  circulation  of  copies  of  Norton's  book,  which  is  re 
ferred  to  by  his  name  in  the  Records,  as  might  be, expected, 
inflamed  to  bitterness  the  resentment  of  the  Court. 

Thomas  Newhouse  gave  his  "  testimony  "  in  Salem  meet 
ing,  "  where,  having  spoken  to  them  what  was  with  him, 

i  Bishop,  p.  72. 


THE  INTRUSION   OP   THE   QUAKERS.  447 

and  having  two  Glass  Bottles  in  his  Hands,  dashed  them  to 
pieces,  saying  to  this  effect,  That  so  they  should  be  dash'd 
in  Pieces."  1  Newhouse  was  whipped. 

But  the  "  infection "  spread  rapidly  and  became  more 
virulent.  The  means  taken  to  suppress  it  gave  it  vigor. 
Many  of  the  ministers  preaching  sharply  against  Quaker 
ism,  misrepresenting  and  caricaturing  its  real  principles, 
excited  curiosity  and  interest  in  it,  and  won  for  it  disci 
ples  in  their  own  flocks.  Some  keenly  discerning  persons, 
wearied  or  repelled  by  the  reiteration  of  literalisms  and 
Calvinistic  dogmas,  began  to  see  behind  the  fantastic  and 
grotesque  obtrusions  of  Quakerism  the  vital  and  elevating 
principles  of  higher  truth.  These  consequences  caused  not 
only  alarm,  but  passionate  indignation  among  the  magis 
trates  and  deputies,  who  as  church  members  could  alone 
make  and  execute  the  laws.  Not  all  of  these,  however, 
were  of  the  same  mind. 

The  General  Court,  Oct.  14,  1657,  tried  to  strengthen  its 
legislation  by  the  following  provisions.  A  fine  of  £100 
was  imposed,  with  imprisonment  till  paid,  on  every  one  who 
should  bring  into  the  jurisdiction  "  a  known  Quaker,  or 
other  blasphemous  haeretick."  Forty  shillings  for  each 
hour  of  entertainment  of  any  such,  by  an  inhabitant,  with 
imprisonment  till  paid,  was  the  penalty  for  that  offence. 
A  male  Quaker  returning  here  after  having  been  once 
dealt  with,  should  have  one  ear  cut  off,  and  be  kept  at  work 
in  the  house  of  correction  till  he  could  be  sent  away  at  his 
own  charges,  and  for  again  returning,  should  lose  the  other 
ear,  etc.  "  Every  woman  Quaker  so  returning  shall  be 
whipt  and  kept  at  work  in  the  house  of  correction  till  re 
moved  at  her  own  charge  ;"  and  so  for  repetition.  Every 
Quaker,  "  he  or  she,"  returning  still  a  third  time,  should 
have  the  tongue  bored  through  with  a  hot  iron,  and  be 
again  sent  off.  The  same  treatment  was  now  to  be  visited 
upon  Quakers  arising  among  ourselves  as  upon  strangers.2 

1  Bishop,  p.  431.  2  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  308. 


448  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Under  this  law,  Sept.  16,  1658,  three  men,  Christopher 
Holder,  John  Copeland,  and  John  Rouse,  had  each  one  ear 
cut  by  the  hangman ; l  but  no  tongue  was  bored.  The 
only  instance  of  branding  in  New  England  —  so  often  prac 
tised  in  England  —  was  that  of  Humphrey  Norton,  in  New 
Haven,  who  had  the  letter  "H"  burned  in  his  hand  for 
"  Heresie." 

Still  another  law  passed  by  the  Court,  May,  1658,  pro 
vided  that  "all  persons  who  by  speaking,  writing,  or  by 
meeting  on  the  Lord's  day,  or  any  other  time,  to  strengthen 
themselves  or  seduce  others  to  their  diabolicall  doctrine," 
for  attending  such  meeting  shall  be  fined  each  time  ten 
shillings ;  for  speaking  at  such  meeting,  five  pounds  each 
time,  with  whipping  and  work  in  the  house  of  correction, 
till  giving  pledge  with  bonds  "  not  any  more  to  vent  their 
hatefull  errors,  nor  use  their  sinfull  practizes,"  or  else  de 
part  the  jurisdiction  at  their  own  charges,  subject,  if  return 
ing,  to  the  former  laws  against  strangers.2 

But  even  the  penalties  carried  up  by  legislation  to  this 
point,  while  not  availing  against  the  subjects  of  them,  fell 
short  of  what  some  —  happily  it  soon  proved  to  be  only  a 
minority  in  the  Puritan  State  —  desired  and  were  ready  to 
approve.  "  All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life," 
is  a  Scripture  sentence,  though  spoken  by  Satan.  Some 
of  the  people  wished  to  put  it  to  trial  in  the  case  of  the 
Quakers,  and  they  had  occasion  to  learn  that  the  sentence 
came  from  "  the  great  liar."  Among  the  papers  in  the 
State  Archives  is  a  document  which  I  have  seen  nowhere 
else,  indorsed,  "  Boston  Petition,  entered  freely  with  the 
Magistrates,  October,  1658,  which  is  past."  It  is  addressed 
"  To  the  Honored  General  Court  now  assembled  at  Boston," 
and  bears  the  signatures  of  twenty-five  prominent  citizens. 

*  The  mutilation  was  done  by  clipping  the  rim  of  the  ear.  One  of  the 
three  eminent  sufferers  by  this  process  in  England,  before  named,  by  a  second 
sentence  had  the  operation  repeated  upon  him. 

2  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  321. 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  449 

The  burden  of  it  is  to  ask  for  even  severer  laws  against 
the  Quakers.  It  begins  by  acknowledging  the  pious  care 
and  fidelity  of  those  "  who  have  sat  at  the  helm,"  and  by 
God's  blessing  have  secured  the  State  in  civil  and  religious 
interests,  though  Satan  has  never  given  over  his  wiles  and 
plottings  against  them.  Yet  notwithstanding  all  their  re 
pressive  and  punitive  measures  against  "  the  prodigious 
insolency  of  the  Quakers,"  the  petitioners  are  moved  to 
offer  some  propositions  for  their  serious  consideration : 
(1)  The  malignity  of  the  Quakers  against  the  establishment 
of  civil  government  shows  them  to  be  "  professed  enemies 
of  the  Christian  Magistrate  and  seducers  of  the  people,"  - 
they  break  the  fifth  commandment ;  (2)  "  Under  pretence  of 
new  light  they  subvert  the  very  body  of  religion,  —  denying 
the  Trinity,  the  person  of  Christ,  the  Scriptures  as  a  rule 
of  life,  the  whole  Church  institution  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  ordinary  means  appointed  for  the  conversion  and  edi 
fication  of  souls  ; "  (3)  Whether  the  increase  and  strength 
ening  of  their  obduracy,  perversity,  and  malignity  does  not 
give  reason  for  apprehending  a  renewal  of  the  spirit  of 
Muncer,  or  John  of  Leyden,  and  justify,  as  in  other  com 
monwealths,  a  rule  for  self-defence  against  the  incorrigible, 
and  require  that  the  penalty  of  death  be  inflicted  upon 
those  returning  from  banishment,  as  well  our  own  people 
as  strangers  ? 

The  Court  at  once  gave  heed  to  the  third  of  these  propo 
sitions.  Previously,  however,  —  in  a  document  found  in 
the  same  collection  of  papers,  but  not  in  the  Records,  —  it 
gave  order  for  issuing  "  A  Manifesto,"  to  hinder  the  spread 
of  the  Quaker  doctrines,  dated  Nov.  6, 1658,  when  it  ap 
peared  after  the  passage  of  the  law  next  to  be  given.  This 
Manifesto  'provides  for  a  Declaration  to  be  written  by  Mr. 
Norton,  stating  in  review  the  efforts  of  the  magistrates  to 
repress  and  punish  the  persistent  heresies  and  ill  practices 
of  the  Quakers,  and  the  increasing  mischief  of  their  activ 
ity.  At  the  second  session  of  the  Court,  Oct.  19,  1658, 


450  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Puritan  legislation  passed  an  enactment  by  which,  in  con 
sequence,  three  men  and  one  woman,  all  of  unsullied  life, 
constant,  heroic,  resigned,  triumphant  even  in  spirit,  yet 
with  no  declamatory  or  unseemly  boastfulness,  were  hanged 
from  a  gallows  on  Boston  Common.  With  shame  and  re 
gret,  unrelieved  and  unrelievable,  must  the  historian  for 
all  time  read,  write,  and  comment  on  that  melancholy 
episode.  All  recognition  of,  all  admiration  for,  some  of 
the  noble  qualities  of  our  Puritans,  and  all  allowance  for 
the  exigencies  and  straits  of  their  position,  must  pause 
at  this  point  and  refuse  to  justify  or  palliate.  If  it  were 
conceivable  that  one  of  those  relentless  magistrates  could 
as  a  shade  confront  the  writer  of  the  preceding  sen 
tence,  asking,  "  What  could  we  have  done  else,  —  beset, 
defied,  blackguarded,  and  outraged  as  we  were  in  our  at 
tempted  rescue  of  our  jurisdiction  from  utter  lawlessness 
and  wreck  ? "  one  could  but  answer,  "  Anything,  rather 
than  what  you  did.  Your  gallows  was  only  for  crimi 
nals,  not  for  those  who  in  calm  constancy  of  spirit  were 
following  their  consciences."  The  magistrate,  however, 
would  rejoin  that  the  Quakers  were  executed  as  crimi 
nals.  This  was  in  fact  the  plea  offered  in  justification  by 
the  Court  to  their  own  constituency  and  to  the  King,  — 
that  these  victims  suffered,  not  as  Quakers  or  heretics,  but 
for  a  defiance  and  contempt  of  law  which  would  prostrate 
civil  government. 

It  is  under  the  guidance  of  this  plea,  with  all  the  patience 
and  candor  that  we  can  exercise,  that  we  must  follow  the 
course  of  the  magistrates  in  making  and  executing  this 
fatal  law.  All  that  can  be  said  for  them  is  what  was  said 
by  themselves.  It  was  enough  to  justify  them  in  their  own 
eyes,  but  not  enough  for  us.  Happily  a  gleam  of  relief 
presents  itself  to  one  who  searches  sharply  and  penetrates 
to  the  inner  revealings  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings  work 
ing  profoundly  in  many  minds  and  hearts  at  the  time,  very 
soon  to  find  avowal  and  strong  assertion  to  the  effect  of 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  451 

interdicting  any  further  like  outrages  of  humanity.  The 
fatal  law,  as  we  shall  see,  barely  secured  an  enactment,  by 
a  majority  of  one  in  the  Court,  and  then  only  by  being 
modified  by  the  introduction  of  a  provision  not  found  in 
its  original  draft.  It  was  resolutely  opposed  at  every 
stage.  Very  shrewdly,  and  with  calculating  policy,  had 
the  sternest  of  the  magistrates  and  ministers  been  prepar 
ing  the  way  to  having  the  proposed  enactment  recognized  as 
vitally  necessary.  It  is  not  uncandid  to  suppose  that  they 
had  themselves  prompted  the  petition  just  referred  to,  ask 
ing  them  to  enact  severer  laws,  including  the  death  pen 
alty.  Their  request  also  that  an  elaborate  Declaration 
should  be  prepared,  stating  and  vindicating  the  grounds 
and  methods  of  their  proceedings  against  their  troublers 
from  their  first  appearance,  shows  their  nervous  unrest 
under  a  relenting  and  opposition  which  they  well  knew  to 
be  working  in  the  minds  of  many  honored  members  of 
their  community. 

The  plea  of  the  magistrates  being  that  henceforward  they 
were  to  regard  the  Quakers  as  criminals,  their  character 
as  heretics  was  subordinated  to  this  view  of  them  as  the 
agents  of  sedition  and  lawlessness,  planning  the  ruin  of  the 
commonwealth.  Heretofore  the  magistrates  had  in  every 
case  found  that  a  sentence  of  banishment  from  their  juris 
diction  was  obeyed,  if  not  respected.  Even  Roger  Williams, 
with  all  the  humility  of  a  petitioner,  will  not  venture  within 
the  limits  from  which  he  has  been  expelled,  merely  for  a 
point  of  embarkation  for  a  voyage  to  England,  without  ask 
ing  and  receiving  permission.  But  some  of  the  Quakers 
first  and  most  defiantly  flung  contempt  upon  the  sentence 
of  banishment,  though  others  of  them  had  respected  it  and 
complied  with  it.  Like  wilful  children,  or  rather  like 
bold  and  stubborn  asserters  of  their  immunity  from  the 
restraints  of  the  law,  they  insisted  that  the  inspiration 
which  moved  them,  discharged  them  from  obedience  to 
man's  statutes.  Under  these  perplexities  the  magistrates 


452  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

asked  what  they  were  to  do.  Should  they  abdicate  their 
offices,  give  place  to  the  will  and  rule  of  these  "  criminals," 
or  make  yet  one  more  effort,  in  their  sworn  trust,  to  save 
the  State  ? J  The  new  law  is  introduced  by  a  fresh  re 
cital  of  their  grievances  :  — 

"  Whereas  there  is  a  pernitious  sect,  commonly  called  Quakers, 
lately  risen,  who,  by  word  and  writing,  have  published  and  main 
tained  many  daingerous  and  horrid  tennetts,  and  do  take  upon  them 
to  chainge  and  alter  the  received  laudable  customes  of  our  nation 
in  giving  civill  respect  to  squalls  or  reverence  to  Superiors,  whose 
actions  tend  to  undermine  the  authority  of  civill  government,  as 
also  to  destroy  the  order  of  the  churches  by  denying  all  established 
forms  of  worship,  and  by  withdrawing  from  the  orderly  church  as 
semblies,  allowed  and  approved  by  all  orthodox  professors  of  the 
truth,  and  instead  thereof  arid  in  opposition  thereunto,  frequenting 
private  meetings  of  their  owne,  insinuating  themselves  into  the 
minds  of  the  simpler,  or  such  as  are  lesse  affected  to  the  order  and 
government  in  church  and  commonwealth,  whereby  diverse  of  our 
inhabitants  have  been  infected  and  seduced,  and  notwithstanding 
all  former  lawes  made  (upon  experience  of  their  arrogant,  bold  ob 
trusions  to  disseminate  theire  principles  amongst  us)  prohibiting 
their  coming  into  this  jurisdiction,  they  have  not  binn  deterred 
from  theire  impetuous  attempts  to  undermine  our  peace  and  hasten 
our  ruine,"  — 

1  The  following  report  of  a  conference  at  a  dinner  of  the  Council  is  found 
on  a  paper  in  the  State  Archives.  "March  9,  16ff.  Major  Hawthorne,  at 
dinner  with  the  Gov.  and  Magistrates  at  a. Court  of  Assistants,  said  that  at 
Salem  there  was  a  woman,  called  Cassandra  Southwick,  that  said  she  was 
greater  than  Moses,  for  Moses  had  seen  God  but  twice,  and  his  back  sides 
[Exodus  xxxiii.  23],  and  she  had  seen  him  three  times,  and  face  to  face,  instan 
cing  the  places  ;  i.  e.  her  own  house  one  time,  and  in  such  a  swamp  another 
time,  etc.  Also  he  said  that  a  woman  of  Lynn,  being  at  the  meeting  when  Win. 
Robinson  was  there,  who  pressed  much  the  seeking  for  the  power  within,  she 
asked  him  how  she  could  come  to  seek  that  power  within.  He  told  her  that 
she  must  cast  off  all  attendances  to  ordinances,  as  public  preaching,  praying, 
reading  the  Scriptures,  and  attending  to  times  of  God's  worship,  and  then  wait 
for  the  communication  of  this  power.  And  he  added,  that  he  that  will  so  do, 
it  will  not  be  long  that  the  Devil  will  appear  either  more  explicitly,  or  at  least 
implicitly,  to  communicate  himself." 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  453 

The  Court  proceeds  to  order  and  enact  that  all  such  in 
truders  shall  be  imprisoned  till  brought  before  the  next 
Court  of  Assistants,  and  — 

"  then,  having  had  a  legal  trial  before  a  special  jury,  if  convicted, 
shall  be  sentenced  to  banishment  upon  pain  of  death.  And  every 
inhabitant  taking  up,  publishing,  and  defending  the  horrid  opin 
ions  of  the  Quakers,  or  by  stirring  up  mutiny,  sedition,  or  rebellion 
against  the  government,  or  by  taking  up  their  absurd  and  destruc 
tive  practices,  namely,  denying  civil  respect  and  reverence  to  aequalls 
and  superiors,  withdrawing  from  our  church  assemblies,  and  instead 
thereof  frequenting  private  meetings  of  their  own,  approving 
Quaker  tenets  or  practices  opposite  to  the  orthodoxe  received  opin 
ions  and  practices  of  the  godly,  and  endeavoring  to  disaffect  others, 
and  condemning  the  practice  and  proceedings  of  this  Court  against 
the  Quakers,"  etc.,  —  upon  legal  conviction,  shall  be  committed  to 
close  prison  for  one  month,  and  then,  "  unless  they  choose  volun 
tarily  to  depart  the  jurisdiction  "  shall  give  bonds  for  their  appear 
ance  before  another  Court,  and  if  not  retracting,  shall  be  banished 
upon  pain  of  death.1 

No  inhabitant  but  only  strangers,  regarded  as  "  vaga 
bonds  "  and  "  criminals,"  suffered  the  extreme  penalty. 
Up  to  this  point  the  Court  might  claim  to  have  followed 
English  precedent  and  practice  in  dealing  with  the  Qua 
kers.  But  though  the  Quaker  historians  give  us  the  names 
of  near  twoscore  persons  of  their  sect,  with  the  circum 
stances,  who  died  in  English  prisons  and  dungeons  from 
abuse,  privations,  and  cruelty,  no  one  was  capitally  pun 
ished  there. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  a  gleam  of  light  shining  upon 
this  proceeding.  Deacon  John  Wiswall,  one  of  the  depu 
ties  from  Dorchester  in  the  Court,  was  strongly  opposed  to 
the  intended  enactment.  He  was  ill  at  the  time,  and  being 
unable  to  attend,  had  had  the  promise  of  another  deputy 
that  he  should  have  warning  if  his  presence  was  needed. 
But  as  the  dissenting  deputies  thought  they  could  vote  down 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt  i.  pp.  345-347. 


454  THE   PURITAN,  AGE. 

the  law,  he  was  not  sent  for.  After  the  magistrates  had 
passed  the  law,  it  came  to  the  deputies.  The  speaker,  Mr. 
Richard  Russell,  and  eleven  others  were  in  the  negative, 
while  thirteen  were  in  the  affirmative.  When  Deacon  Wis- 
wall  heard  the  result  he  was  sorely  troubled,  saying  he 
would  have  crept  on  his  hands  and  knees  to  have  prevented 
it.  The  two  Boston  deputies,  Hutchinson  and  Clark,  en 
tered  their  protests.  As  the  law  first  passed,  it  was  with 
out  provision  for  a  trial  by  jury.  The  twelve  dissentients 
threatening  to  withstand  the  law  as  in  this  respect  re 
pugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  the  magistrates,  fearing 
a  complete  break-down,  consented  to  insert  it.  Yet  the 
provision  amounted  to  but  little,  as  the  jury  would  have 
to  decide  merely  upon  the  fact  of  the  accused  being  a 
Quaker. 

There  is  further  evidence  of  the  nervous  anxiety  of  the 
magistrates  to  hold  to  the  point  reached,  and  to  keep  the 
people  who  were  on  their  side  resolute  and  watchful. 

The  Quaker  historians  follow  the  narration  of  the  pro 
ceedings  against  the  Quakers  from  Massachusetts,  where 
th<?y  began,  into  the  other  New  England  Colonies,  and  into 
the  Province  of  New  York,  then  under  Dutch  rule.  It 
would  be  aside  from  our  limits,  as  concerned  only  with  the 
affairs  of  the  Biblical  commonwealth  of  the  Bay  Colony,  to 
make  any  reference  to  these  extended  proceedings,  were  it 
not  for  the  fact  that  Massachusetts  did  so  much  toward 
instigating  them.  Under  the  title  of  the  "  United  Colonies 
of  New  England,"  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  New  Haven, 
and  Connecticut  had  entered  into  a  confederacy.  The  first 
suggestion  for  some  such  union  had  come  from  Massa 
chusetts,  in  June,  1638  ;  it  was  not  effected,  however,  until 
May,  1643.  In  her  relations  with  her  sister  New  England 
Colonies,  Massachusetts  too  often,  and  generally,  allowed 
herself  to  assume  a  dominant  and  dictatorial  spirit.  Two 
reasons  may  have  prompted  this  course  :  First,  there  was 
a  weight  and  positiveness  of  character  in  her  leading  men, 


THE   INTRUSION    OF   THE    QUAKERS.  455 

helped  by  superiority  in  wealth  and  means,  which  seemed 
to  justify  her  pre-eminence  and  to  make  it  natural  for  the 
other  Colonies  to  recognize  it ;  Second,  Massachusetts  very 
soon  developed  a  policy  in  her  affairs  which  clearly  denned 
to  herself  and  others  what  she  was  aiming  for  in  a  strongly 
grounded  system  of  government,  with  the  method  and  ap 
pliances  requisite  to  secure  it,  while  the  other  Colonies 
were  only  feeling  their  way.  Massachusetts  readily  affili 
ated  with  Plymouth,  though  occasionally  moved  to  interfere 
with  suggestions  and  advice,  and  to  administer  reproofs 
for  laxity  in  administration.  The  confederacy  was  to  be 
represented  by  two  commissioners,  chosen  by  the  General 
Courts  of  each  of  the  four  Colonies,  meeting  successively 
in  each  of  them.  The  articles  recognize  their  common  ends, 
— "  to  advance  the  Kingdome  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Grospell  in  puritie  with 
peace.''  They  refer  to  the  u  sad  distractions  in  England  " 
in  the  time  of  civil  strife,  and  to  their  own  exposure, 
"  dispersed  upon  the  Sea  Coasts  and  Rivers  further  than 
was  at  first  intended."  They  are  "  encompassed  with  peo 
ple  of  severall  nations  and  strang  languages,  who  have 
formerly  committed  sondry  insolences  and  outrages  upon 
them."  They  therefore  "  enter  into  a  firme  perpetual 
league  of  friendship  and  amytie,  for  offence  and  defence, 
mutuall  advice  and  succour  upon  all  just  occations  both 
for  preserving  and  propagateing  the  truth  and  liberties 
of  the  Gospell,  and  for  their  owne  mutuall  safety  and 
wellfare." 

Massachusetts  made  haste  to  avail  herself  of  this  cov 
enant  under  her  consternation  at  the  intrusion  of  the 
Quakers  within  her  bounds.  The  commissioners  met  in 
turn  at  Plymouth,  Sept.  4,  1656.  A  letter  was  there 
read,  sent  by  the  governor  and  magistrates  of  Massachu 
setts,  who  had  just  passed  their  first  enactment  against  the 
Quakers.  It  opens  with  a  reference  to  their  covenant  "  for 
maintaining  Religion  in  its  puritie,"  and  after  rebuking 


456  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

Plymouth  for  slackness  in  its  encouragement  "  of  a  pious 
Orthodox  Minnestrey,"  it  comes  to  the  point  thus :  — 

"  Heer  hath  arived  amongst  us  severall  persons  proffessing  them 
selves  quakers,  fitt  Instruments  to  propagate  the  kingdoine  of 
Sathan ;  for  the  Securing  of  ourselves  and  our  Naighbours  from 
such  pests,  wee  have  Imprisoned  them  till  they  bee  despatched 
away  to  the  place  from  whence  they  came." 

One  of  these  was  returned  to  Southampton,  and  Connec 
ticut  is  reminded  to  look  after  him.  The  commissioners 
are  asked  to  commend  to  each  General  Court  rules  "  to 
prevent  the  coming  in  amongst  us  from  foraigne  places 
such  Notorious  heretiques  as  quakers,  Ranters,"  etc.  The 
commissioners  applaud  the  zeal  of  the  Massachusetts,  and 
make  the  desired  recommendation  to  the  Courts. 

William  Coddington,  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  before 
its  charter  and  its  incorporation  with  Providence  Planta 
tions,  had,  in  1648,  petitioned  the  commissioners  that  his 
Colony  might  be  received  into  the  confederacy.  This  was 
refused,  on  the  ground  that  the  island  should  properly  put 
itself  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth,  and  also  because 
it  was  full  of  confusion  and  distraction  from  dangerous 
persons  and  culprits  who  used  the  place  "  as  a  City  of 
Refuge." 

The  next  year,  in  September,  1657,  the  commissioners, 
meeting  in  Boston,  addressed  a  letter  to  the  government  of 
Rhode  Island  to  this  effect:  They  had  information  that  dur 
ing  the  summer  some  Quakers  had  been  entertained  at  the 
island  who  might  prove  dangerous  to  their  neighbors,  and 
the  islanders  are  told  of  the  advice  given  by  the  commis 
sioners  of  the  previous  year  "that  all  quakers,  Rantors, 
and  such  notorious  heretiques "  coming  from  abroad,  or 
rising  up  here,  should  be  sent  off.  The  islanders  are 
solicited  to  follow  this  advice,  with  an  intimation  that  if 
it  is  neglected  something  may  follow.  . 


THE   INTRUSION  OP   THE  QUAKERS.  457 

Among  all  the  dismal  documents  for  one's  reading  on 
this  subject,  it  is  refreshing  to  come  upon  a  paper  which 
by  its  naivete  and  humor  gives  momentary  relief.  Rhode 
Island  had  become  known  as  "  a  harborage  for  all  sorts  of 
consciences."  The  uniformity  sought  for  in  Massachusetts 
may  be  likened  to  the  cording  of  sticks  of  wood,  each 
straight  and  all  of  equal  length.  One  however  would  have 
been  puzzled  to  oleal  in  that  way  with  the  material  for  con 
sciences  in  Rhode  Island  at  that  time,  which  presented 
itself  in  the  form  of  those  roots  of  forest  trees  used  for 
making  a  "  Virginia  fence,"  with  gnarled  and  crooked 
prongs  in  all  directions.  Benedict  Arnold,  President  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  for  his  associates,  replied  as  follows  to 
Massachusetts  Court,  Oct.  13,  1657  :  — 

"  Please  you  to  understand,  that  there  hath  come  to  our  view  a 
letter  subscribed  by  the  honoured  gentlemen  commissioners  of  the 
united  coloneys,  the  contents  whereof  are  a  request  concerning  cer- 
tayne  people  caled  quakers,  come  among  us  lately. 

"  Our  desires  are  in  all  things  possible  to  pursue  after  and 
keepe  fayre  and  loving  correspondence  and  entercourse  with  all 
the  Colloneys,  and  with  all  our  countreymen  in  New  England; 
and  to  that  purpose  we  have  endeavoured  (and  shall  still  endeav 
our)  to  answere  the  desires  and  requests  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
trey  coming  unto  us,  in  all  just  and  equall  returries,  to  which  end 
the  coloney  have  made  seasonable  provision  to  preserve  a  just  and 
equal  entercourse  between  the  coloneys  and  us,  by  giving  justice 
to  any  that  demand  it  among  us,  and  by  returning  such  as  make 
escapes  from  you,  or  from  the  other  coloneys,  being  such  as  fly 
from  the  hands  of  justice,  for  matters  of  crime  done  or  committed 
amongst  you.  And  as  concerning  these  quakers  (so-called)  which 
are  now  among  us.  we  have  no  law  among  us  whereby  to.  punish 
any  for  only  declaring  by  words  their  minds  and  understandings 
concerning  the  things  and  ways  of  God  as  to  salvation  and  an 
eternal  condition.  And  we,  moreover,  finde,  that  in  those  places 
where  these  people  aforesaid  in  this  coloney  are  most  of  all  suf 
fered  to  declare  themselves  freely,  and  are  only  oposed  by  argu 
ments  in  discourse,  there  they  least  of  all  desire  to  come ;  and  we 


458  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

are  informed  that  they  begin  to  loath  this  place,  for  that  they  are 
not  opposed  by  the  civill  authority,  but  with  all  patience  and  meek- 
nes  are  suffered  to  say  over  their  pretended  revelations  and  admo 
nitions,  nor  are  they  like  or  able  to  gain  many  here  to  their  way  ; 
and  surely  we  find  that  they  delight  to  be  persecuted  by  civill 
powers,  and  when  they  are  soe,  they  are  like  to  gaine  more  adhe 
rents  by  the  conseyte  of  their  patient  sufferings  than  by  consent 
to  their  pernicious  sayings.  And  yet  we  conceive  that  their  doc 
trines  tend  to  very  absolute  cutting  downe  and  overturning  rela 
tions  and  civill  government  among  men,  if  generally  received. 
But  as  to  the  dammage  that  may  in  all  likelyhood  accrue  to  the 
neighbour  colloneys  by  their  being  here  entertained,  we  conceive 
it  will  not  prove  so  dangerous  (as  else  it  might)  in  regard  of  the 
course  taken  by  you  to  send  them  away  out  of  the  countrey  as 
they  come  among  you.  But,  however,  at  present  we  judge  itt 
requisitt  (and  doe  intend)  to  commend  the  consideration  of  their 
extravagant  outgoings  unto  the  generall  assembly  of  our  coloney 
in  March  next,  where  we  hope  there  will  be  such  order  taken  as 
may,  in  all  honest  and  contientious  mariner,  prevent  the  bad  effects 
of  their  doctrines  and  endeavours ;  and  soe,  in  all  courtious  and 
loving  respects,  and  with  desire  of  all  honest  and  fayre  commerce 
with  you  and  the  rest  of  our  honoured  and  beloved  countrymen, 
we  rest,  Yours  in  all  loving  respects  to  serve  you."  x 

Roger  Williams,  whose  vigorous  disputation  with  Qua 
kers  at  Newport  and  Providence  will  be  referred  to  on  a 
later  page,  gives  this  account  of  the  impression  which  they 
made  upon  him :  — 

"They  are  insufferably  proud  and  contemptuous.  I  have, 
therefore,  publicly  declared  myself,  that  a  due  and  moderate  re 
straint  and  punishment  of  these  incivilities,  though  pretending 
conscience,  is  so  far  from  persecution,  properly  so  called,  that  it  is 
a  duty  and  command  of  God  unto  all  mankinde,  first  in  Families, 
and  thence  into  all  mankinde  Societies."  2 

At  the  meeting  of  the  commissioners  in  Boston,  Septem 
ber,  1658,  the  whole  eight,  with  an  exception  to  be  noticed, 

1  Hutchin son's  Hist.  Mass.,  vol.  i.  appendix  xi. 

2  George  Fox  Digg'd  out  of  his  Burrowes,  p.  200. 


THE   INTRUSION   OF   THE   QUAKERS.  459 

agreed  to  recommend  to  the  several  General  Courts  the 
enactment  of  a  measure  which  begins  with  a  recitation : 
"  Whereas  there  is  an  accursed  and  pernitious  sectt  of  heri- 
tiques  lately  risen  up  in  the  world,  who  are  commonly 
called  Quakers,  who  do  take  upon  them  to  bee  immediately 
sent  of  God  and  Infallably  assisted,"  etc.  Reference  is 
then  made  to  the  dangerous  character  of  their  tenets  and 
their  offensive  practices,  and  to  the  laws  already  passed, 
and  the  efforts  made  in  vain  to  suppress  them.  The 
measure  proposed  is  that  the  Quakers  be  banished  from 
the  several  jurisdictions,  under  pain  of  severe  corporal 
punishment  if  they  return,  and  on  a  second  return  be 
put  to  death.  John  Winthrop  signs  with  this  condition, 
"  Looking  att  the  last  as  a  query  and  not  an  Act :  I  sub 
scribe."  1 

It  is  grateful  to  assign  to  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  of  Con 
necticut,  the  esteem  he  deserves  from  us  for  his  pronounced 
dissent  from  the  extreme  course  of  the  Massachusetts  au 
thorities  toward  the  Quakers.  He  said  he  would  go  on 
his  knees  before  the  magistrates  to  arrest  their  execu 
tion.  Another  friend  they  found  whose  interposition  might 
have  been  of  service.  Col.  Sir  Thomas  Temple,  who,  in 
1656,  had  purchased  Nova  Scotia  from  De  la  Tour,  and 
had  been  made  Governor  of  the  Province  by  Cromwell 
and  Charles  II.,  proposed  to  the  Court  of  Massachusetts,  at 
his  own  charge  to  transport  the  Quakers  there,  and  to 
maintain  them  for  a  time.  The  magistrates  approved,  but 
the  deputies  rejected  the  proposal.  Reference  is  made 
to  the  subject  in  a  letter  from  Rev.  John  Davenport  to 
Winthrop,  Jr. :  — 

"  I  am  very  sorry  that  the  General  Court  at  Boston  did  not 
accept  Colonel  Temple's  motion,  which  had  bene  a  cleare  way, 
and  incomparably  the  best  expedient  for  freeing  all  the  Cblonies 
from  the  Quakers,  who  would  have  feared  that  kind  of  banishment 
more  than  hanging ;  it  being  a  real  cutting  them  off  from  all 
1  Records  of  Commissioners  (1658),  vol.  ii. 


460  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

opportunities  and  libertie  of  doing  hurt  in  the  Colonies  by  gain 
ing  proselytes,  which  would  have  bene  more  bitter  than  death 
to  them."1 

Neither  of  the  other  Colonies  passed  a  capital  law,  as  did 
Massachusetts.  In  Plymouth  very  severe  proceedings  were 
adopted  against  the  Quakers,  with  warm  protests  from 
those  who  sympathized  with  them.  Connecticut  dealt  with 
the  Quakers  so  leniently  that  they  did  not  much  annoy  that 
Colony.  In  New  Haven  much  sharper  treatment  was  vis 
ited  upon  them,  and  of  course  their  own  words  and  acts 
were  more  defiant  arid  troublesome.  In  the  Dutch  Colony 
of  New  York  individuals  and  meetings  of  them  were 
treated  with  extreme  violence.  But  these  references  are 
outside  of  our  subject. 

A  whole  year  passed  after  the  enactment  of  the  capital 
law  before  it  found  the  first  two  victims  of  its  penalty.  In 
the  mean  while,  however,  seven  persons,  who  had  returned 
after  being  banished  with  the  sentence  of  death  should 
they  be  found  again  in  the  jurisdiction,  were  amenable  to 
the  law,  and  were  in  prison.  How  it  would  have  fared 
with  them  had  they  not  finally  agreed  to  go  away,  may 
be  doubtful.  Nor  may  we  charge  either  of  the  seven 
with  a  failure  of  firmness  in  courage  or  resolve  in  releas 
ing  themselves  from  the  direful  trial  of  their  constancy. 
Grateful,  rather,  should  we  be  to  them  for  finding  in  their 
spiritual  reckonings  with  themselves  a  prompting  to  go 
rather  than  to  stay.  The  first  of  the  seven,  subject  to 
condemnation,  William  Brend,  who  had  been  a  grievous 
trial  to  the  magistrates,  "  felt  at  liberty  "  to  leave,  and 
went  to  Rhode  Island.  Six  more,  arraigned  May  11,  1659, 
were  to  be  on  trial  for  life  if  not  gone  within  a  month. 
Three  of  them  went  to  Barbadoes,  two  to  Shelter  Island, 
and  one  to  Rhode  Island.  Two  others,  young  persons, 
were  intended  to  be  sent  to  Barbadoes  or  Virginia,  after 

1  4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vii.  509. 


THE  INTRUSION   OF   THE   QUAKERS.  461 

a  usage  of  the  time,  to  be  sold  for  their  fines.  But  no 
mariner  would  transport  them,  so  they  were  left  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  If  the  magistrates  encouraged  them 
selves  from  these  voluntary  departures  that  the  terror  of 
death  on  the  gallows  would  henceforth  be  their  security  in 
all  cases,  they  were  soon  brought  to  realize  their  error. 

William  Robinson,  a  young  English  Friend,  who,  after 
an  imprisonment  of  six  months  in  Virginia,  had  been 
travelling  here  on  a  mission,  hearing  that  the  sentenced 
persons  just  referred  to  had  found  release,  felt  "  that  the 
Lord  had  laid  the  burden  upon  him"  to  put  the  law  to 
trial  in  his  own  person.  In  company  with  an  English 
farmer,  Marmaduke  Stevenson,  who  "  had  been  required 
of  the  Lord  to  leave  my  dear  and  loving  wife  and  tender 
children,  under  a  secret  message  to  my  heart,  6 1  have 
ordained  thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations,'  "  came  to  Bos 
ton.  Two  others  put  into  prison  with  them  were  Mary 
Dyer  —  on  her  second  venture  to  Boston  —  and  Nicholas 
Davis.  Being  brought  to  trial,  they  were  sentenced,  Sept. 
14,  1659,  to  banishment  and  to  death  if  they  did  not 
depart  within  two  days.  Davis  left  the  jurisdiction,  and 
Mary  Dyer  "  felt  liberty  "  this  time  to  go  home  to  Rhode 
Island ;  but  soon  after,  "  feeling  a  religious  restraint,"  she 
came  back  to  Boston,  October  8.  Robinson  and  Steven 
son,  who,  instead  of  leaving  the  jurisdiction,  had  been 
on  a  missionary  tour,  holding  meetings  in  it,  again  boldly 
presented  themselves  in  Boston,  and  were  committed  to 
prison  with  the  resolute  and  unquailing  Mary  Dyer,  whose 
spirit  could  find  no  rest  while  the  atrocious  death  penalty 
hung  over  any  of  the  Friends  whom  she  knew  to  be  the 
"  most  innocent,  pure,  and  harmless "  of  all  who  then 
lived  around  her.  The  woful  tragedy  had  reached  its 
fifth  act.  In  the  Court,  Oct.  18,  1659,— 

"  Itt  is  ordered  that  William  Robbinson,  Marmaduke  Stephen- 
son,  and  Mary  Dyer,  Quakers,  now  in  prison  for  their  rebellion, 
sedition,  and  presumptuous  obtruding  themselves  upon  us,  not- 


462  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

withstanding  theire  being  sentenced  to  banishment  on  paine  of 
death,  as  underminers  of  this  government,  shall  be  brought  before 
this  Court  for  their  trialls,  to  suffer  the  poenalty  of  the  lawe  (the 
just  reward  of  their  transgression)  on  the  morrow." 

Then,  on  the  trial,  they  acknowledged  themselves  to  be 
the  persons  banished,  —  the  point  on  which  the  jury  was  to 
pass ;  and,  on  a  full  hearing,  Governor  Endicott,  having 
put  the  question  to  the  Court,  with  its  approval,  pro 
nounced  against  each  of  them  the  sentence  for  execution. 
The  Secretary  was  ordered  to  issue  his  warrant  to  the 
Marshal-General,  Michelson,  to  take  from  the  prison  the 
three  condemned,  October  27,  and  - 

"  by  the  aide  of  Capt.  James  Oliver,  with  one  hundred  souldiers, 
taken  out  by  his  order  proportionably  out  of  each  company  in 
Boston,  compleatly  armed  with  pike  and  musketteers,  with  pouder 
and  bullett,  to  lead  them  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  there  see 
them  hang  till  they  be  dead,  and  in  theire  going,  being  there,  and 
retourne,  to  see  all  things  be  carried  peaceably  and  orderly." 

Such  entertainment  as,  under  their  grim  circumstances, 
the  prisoners  would  most  relish  was  provided  for  them  by 
the  Court,  in  sending  to  them  the  two  elders,  Symmes  and 
Norton,  to  "  tender  theire  endeavors  to  make  the  prisoners 
sencible  of  their  approaching  danger  by  the  sentence  of 
this  Court,  and  prepare  them  for  theire  approaching  ends." 
They  would  even  then  have  been  allowed  to  depart  had 
they  consented  to  do  so.  Thus  the  issue  was  fairly  drawn 
between  the  magistrates,  standing  for  their  authority,  and 
the  Quakers,  standing  for  conscience.  We  know  nothing 
about  the  interview,  but  may  be  sure  that  the  Quakers, 
wholly  indifferent  to  what  the  two  "  priests  "  might  urge 
upon  them,  spoke  their  own  minds  with  all  plainness. 
Though  the  Court  had  sentenced  Mary  Dyer  to  execution, 
yet  on  the  intercession  of  her  son  she  was  allowed  forty- 
eight  hours  in  which  to  be  taken  from  the  jurisdiction, 
to  be  closely  imprisoned  until  removed,  and  "  to  be  forth- 


THE   INTRUSION    OF   THE   QUAKERS.  463 

with  executed  if  she  returned.  In  the  mean  while  she  was 
to  go  with  the  other  two  condemned  to  the  place  of  execu 
tion,  and  to  stand  upon  the  gallows  with  a  rope  about  her 
neck  till  her  companions  were  executed." 

There  are  many  tokens  that  the  magistrates  were  aware 
that  they  were  about  to  submit  their  doings  to  a  severe 
ordeal  in  boldly  defying  the  known  disapproval  and  the 
possible  opposition  of  a  large  number  of  the  people,  espe 
cially  of  the  "  uncovenanted."  Captain  Oliver  was  ordered 
to  place  thirty-six  of  the  soldiers  about  the  town  as  senti 
nels,  to  preserve  the  peace  while  the  execution  was  going 
on.  The  selectmen  of  Boston  were  required  to  press  ten 
or  twelve  able  and  faithful  persons  every  night  to  watch 
the  town  and  the  prison  while  the  Court  was  sitting.1 

It  was  after  the  Thursday  Lecture,  Oct.  27,  1659,  that 
great  multitudes  of  people  gathered  in  the  town  to  witness 
the  tragic  spectacle.  The  condemned  took  an  affecting 
leave  of  their  fellow-prisoners,  with  embracing  and  joyful 
outpourings  of  their  constancy  and  assurance,  and  then 
they  were  taken  "  like  Innocent  Lambs  out  of  the  Butch 
er's  Cub  to  the  Slaughter."  2  The  procession  went  by  the 
"  backway,  lest  the  people  should  be  affected  too  much  if 
it  went  by  the  foreway."  The  drummers  were  placed  close 
to  the  prisoners  to  drown  their  voluble  and  triumphant 
utterances.  Mary  Dyer  walked  between  the  men,  "  as  to 
a  Wedding  day,"  with  a  serene  and  lifted  spirit,  and  with 
beaming  features,  joining  her  hands  in  theirs,  though 
jeered  by  some  for  this  familiarity  with  two  young  men. 
The  victims  bore  themselves  with  a  seemly  dignity.  Mr. 
Wilson,  the  Elder,  casting  aside  all  that  became  his  pro 
fession  and  self-respect,  addressing  Robinson  "  in  a  light 
Scoffing  manner,  said,  Shall  such  Jacks  as  you  come  in 
before  Authority  with  your  Hats  on  ?  "  Still  the  hat !  —  the 
idol  equally  of  both  parties.  The  gallows  seems  to  have 
been  a  ladder  rising  above  a  branch  of  a  tree,  from  which 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  384.  2  Bishop. 


464  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

a  rope  was  attached  to  the  victims  one  by  one,  and  then 
the  ladder  was  removed.  The  bodies,  without  any  cover 
ing,  were  put  into  a  hole  in  the  earth,  which  was  soon 
covered  with  water.  Some  sympathizing  friends  had 
brought  into  the  town  linen  for  their  shrouds.  The  bod 
ies  were  disinterred  to  allow  of  this  covering,  but  coffins 
were  forbidden,  and  the  Quakers  murmured  that  they 
"  might  be  preyed  upon  by  Bruit  Creatures."  A  striking 
token  of  the  long  surviving  animosity  to  the  first  Quakers 
in  the  town  is  furnished  in  the  Journal  of  Judge  Sewall. 
The  Quakers  had  a  meeting-house  —  the  first  one  in  the 
town  built  of  brick  —  and  a  burial-ground  in  Brattle  Street 
in  1694.  A  new  one  was  substituted  for  this  in  1708,  in 
Congress  Street,  then  called  Quaker  Lane ;  but  their  meet 
ings  have  been  long  discontinued.  The  Judge  records, 
under  date  of  June  17,  1685,- 

"  A  Quaker  or  two  goe  to  the  Governour  and  ask  leave  to 
enclose  the  Ground  the  Hanged  Quakers  are  in  under  or  near  the 
Gallows,  with  Pales :  Governour  proposed  it  to  the  Council,  who 
unanimously  denyed  it  as  very  inconvenient l  for  persons  so  dead 
and  buried  in  the  place  to  have  any  Monument."  2 

The  Quaker  historians  note  among  the  "  providences " 
marking  the  treatment  of  their  friends,  that  as  the  crowd 
returned  from  the  execution  of  Robinson  and  Stevenson, 
a  portion  of  the  drawbridge  —  it  crossed  a  creek  in  the 
present  North  Street  —  broke  down,  injuring  many  persons, 
some  fatally. 

Mary  Dyer  had  been  pinioned  and  raised  on  the  ladder. 
When  released,  she  said  she  was  "  not  free  "  to  come  down, 
and  left  it  to  the  officials  to  relieve  her.  She  addressed 
papers  to  the  magistrates,  expressing  her  discontent  at 
receiving  her  life  at  their  hands,  and  was  carried  from  the 

1  The  Judge,  throughout  his  Journal,  uses  the  word  "  inconvenient "  in  the 
sense  of  unseemly,  improper,  inconsistent. 
*  Sewall  Papers,  i.  82. 


THE  INTRUSION  OP   THE  QUAKERS.  465 

jurisdiction  by  a  body  of  horsemen.  All  the  condemned, 
with  many  other  prisoners,  addressed  letters  of  remon 
strance,  or  testimonies  to  their  faith  and  their  principles, 
from  the  jail  to  the  magistrates.  These  papers  are  among 
the  State  Archives.  They  are  all  of  an  earnest  and  becom 
ing  tone  and  tenor,  filled  with  the  simplicities  of  piety  and 
the  joys  and  fervors  of  full  conviction. 

The  next  measure  of  the  tormented  magistrates  was  to 
spread  upon  their  records,  and  to  circulate  —  one  by  the 
press,  the  other  in  writing,  to  the  various  towns  —  the  two 
preferred  out  of  several  papers  that  had  been  sent  to  them, 
as  "  Declarations,"  rehearsing  and  justifying  their  proceed 
ings  against  the  Quakers,  including  the  capital  law  and 
the  two  executions  under  it.  Their  tone  and  pleading  are 
pitiful  and  painful  to  readers  of  our  time.  Nothing  of 
statement,  argument,  or  vindication  is  found  in  them  which 
has  not  been  already  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  reader. 
We  are,  however,  bound  in  justice  and  candor,  with  what 
ever  of  reluctance  and  antipathy  the  effort  may  cost  us, 
to  endeavor  to  read  ourselves  —  we  cannot  do  more  —  into 
the  intent  and  position,  the  outlook,  and  the  assumed  obli 
gation  of  the  pleaders.  The  papers  cover  six  solid  quarto 
pages.  They  begin  by  affirming  that  so  far  from  offering 
an  apology  for  their  last  proceedings,  they  may  rather  look 
for  encouragement  and  commendation  "  from  all  prudent 
and  pious  men."  Therefore  they  address  themselves  — 

"  to  men  of  weaker  parts,  who,  out  of  pitty  and  commiseration  (a 
commendable  and  Christian  virtue,  yet  easily  abused,  and  suscep 
tible  of  sinister  and  dangerous  impressions),  for  want  of  full  infor 
mation,  may  be  lesse  satisfied :  and  men  of  perverse  principles 
may  take  occasion  hereby  to  calumniate  us,  and  render  us  as 
bloody  persecutors ;  to  satisfy  the  one,  and  stop  the  mouths  of  the 
other,  wee  thought  it  requisite  to  declare  —  " 

Then  follows  a  review  of  the  legislation  of  the  last  three 
years.  They  had  had  warning  of  the  pernicious  and  dan- 

30 


466  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

gerous  principles  and  practices  of  the  Quakers,  expressed 
with  all  the  harsh  and  shuddering  epithets  attached  to  them, 
and  identifying  them  with  the  fanatics,  "their  predeces 
sors  in  Munster."  Successive  efforts,  at  first  not  punitive, 
then  by  gradation  of  penalties,  had  been  tried  in  vain  for 
protection  and  security,  till  they  had  at  last  been  driven 
to  pass  a  law  of  banishment  on  pain  of  death,  "  according 
to  the  example  of  England,  in  their  provission  against 
Jesuits."  They  had  been  compelled,  after  the  failure  — 

"  of  gradual  proceedings,  to  offer  the  points,  for  our  own  just  and 
necessary  defence,  which  these  persons  have  violently  and  wilfully 
rushed  upon,  and  thereby  have  become  felons  de  se" 

Six  grounds  of  their  proceedings  are  then  methodically 
stated  :  1.  "  The  doctrine  of  this  sect  of  people  is  destruc 
tive  to  fundamental!  trueths  of  religion,"  with  particulars 
and  arguments  in  proof  of  the  assertion.  2.  "  It  is  the 
commandment  of  the  blessed  God  that  Christians  should 
obey  magistrates."  This  is  abundantly  traced  through  the 
Scriptures.  But  the  Quakers  deny  honor  and  reverence  to 
magistrates.  "  They  show  contempt  against  them  in  theire 
very  outward  gestures  and  behavior,  and  (some  of  them  at 
least)  spare  not  to  belch  out  railing  and  cursing  speeches. 
Witness  that  odious,  cursing  letter  of  Humphrey  Norton." 
3.  "  The  story  of  Solomon  and  Shimei  (1  Kings  ii.)  is 
a  warrant  for  banishment.  And  banishment  is  a  lighter 
infliction  than  confinement,  as  it  leaves  a  man  free  for 
and  in  all  places  but  one."  4.  This  proposition  elabo 
rates  with  much  force  and  precision  the  favorite  plea  of  the 
magistrates  of  their  exclusive  territorial  rights,  as  absolute 
proprietors  of  this  jurisdiction,  precisely  like  'those  of  a 
housekeeper,  with  consequent  power  to  expel  interlopers 
and  unwelcome  strangers.  5.  Heads  of  families  have  a 
right  and  duty  to  protect  themselves  from  all  pernicious 
companionship  and  teachings,  and  to  secure  them  like 
sheep  and  lambs  from  destroying  wolves.  6.  The  Lord 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  467 

commanded  his  disciples  if  persecuted  in  one  city  to  flee 
to  another.  Scripture  is  largely  cited  to  show  how  all 
"  true  saints  "  complied  with  this  command.  The  Quakers 
disobey  it. 

This  Declaration  is  followed  by  two  orders,  —  one  for  the 
strengthening  of  the  fence  round  the  prison  and  house  of 
correction,  to  debar  intercourse  with  the  prisoners ;  the 
other  to  arrest  those  who  had  lodged  Quakers.  The  Court 
also  dealt  with  Christopher  Holder,  who,  having  been  sent 
to  England  without  punishment,  and  having  returned  with 
out  leave,  had  three  days  allowed  him  to  go  back  in  a  ship 
about  sailing,  or  to  be  banished  on  pain  of  death.  In  No 
vember  the  Court  awarded  five  hundred  acres  of  land  to 
Mr.  Norton  in  return  for  his  having  written,  as  requested, 
his  "tractate  refuting  the  daingerous  errors  of  the  Qua 
kers."  It  is  entitled,  "  The  Heart  of  New  England  rent  by 
the  blasphemies  of  the  Present  Generation."  Fines  were 
imposed  on  seven  persons  for  entertaining  Quakers,  and 
other  like  culprits  were  summoned.  Edward  Wharton, 
who  had  "  pilatted  "  Quakers,  was  imprisoned,  and  received 
twenty  stripes.  Ten  more  Quakers,  men  and  women,  "  ab 
senting  themselves  from  theire  family  relations,  for  their 
disorderly  practices  and  vagabond  life  "  were  whipped. 

And  now  again  appears  Mary  Dyer,  for  the  fourth  time 
since  her  first  banishment  from  Boston  as  an  Antinomian. 
Reprieved  and  sent  off  on  the  last  27th  of  October,  she 
returns  and  is  brought  before  the  Court  on  the  30th 
of  the  next  May.  She  had  been  carried  away  under 
the  burden  of  having  failed  of  her  full  mission,  and  she 
invited  an  opportunity  to  crown  it.  If  that  woman  was 
sound  in  her  mind,  —  and  the  intensity  and  fervor  of  her 
spirit,  however  it  may  have  swayed  and  driven  her,  is 
no  proof  that  she  was  not,  —  she  had  a  grand  nobility  of 
nature,  firm  in  nerve,  with  a  calm  earnestness  of  soul,  and 
the  force  which  goes  with  a  gentle  and  heroic  constancy. 
To  the  magistrates,  however,  she  was  a  persistent  and 


468  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

pestilent  tormentor,  under  whose  teasing  aggravations  they 
had  been  smarting  for  twenty  years.  Of  her  whereabout 
during  the  seven  months  since  her  reprieve  we  are  in 
formed  only  imperfectly,  in  a  letter  from  her  husband, 
William  Dyer,  Secretary  of  Rhode  Island,  dated  Ports 
mouth,  May  27, 1660,  and  addressed  to  Governor  Endicott. 
The  original  is  in  the  State  Archives,  and  one  reading  it 
in  these  days  will  be  moved  to  add  to  the  tears  which  the 
writer  plainly  let  fall  upon  it.  It  is  evident  from  it  that 
he  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  views  and  the  conduct  of 
his  wife ;  and  it  would  seem  that,  as  she  had  abandoned  her 
home,  he  had  not  seen  her  since  her  reprieve.  This  pathetic 
appeal  from  a  deserted  husband  is  as  follows :  — 

HONORED  SIR,  —  It  is  no  little  grief  of  mind  and  sadness  of 
hart  that  I  am  necessitated  to  be  so  bould  as  to  supplicate  your 
honored  self,  with  the  Honble  Assembly  of  your  Generall  Court, 
to  extend  your  mercy  and  favor  once  agen  to  me  and  my  children. 
Little  did  I  dream  that  I  should  ever  had  had  occasion  to  petition 
you  in  a  matter  of  this  nature ;  but  so  it  is  that  throw  the  divine 
providence  and  your  benignity  my  sonn  obtained  so  much  pity 
and  mercy  att  your  hands  as  to  enjoy  the  life  of  his  mother. 

Now  my  supplication  to  your  Honors  is  to  begg  affectionately 
the  life  of  my  deare  wife.  'T  is  true  I  have  not  scene  her  above 
this  halfe  yeare,  and  therefore  cannot  tell  how  in  the  frame  of  her 
spirit  she  was  moved  thus  again  to  run  so  great  a  hazard  to  her 
self  and  perplexity  to  me  and  mine,  and  all  her  friends  and  well- 
wishers  ;  so  it  is,  from  Shelter  Island  about  by  Pequid,  Narra- 
gansett  and  to  the  town  of  Providence,  she  secretly  and  speedily 
journied,  and  as  secretly  from  thence  came  to  your  jurisdiction. 
Unhappy  journey  may  I  say ;  and  woe  to  that  generation,  saye  I, 
that  gives  occasion  thus  of  grief  and  trouble  to  those  that  desires 
to  be  quiet,  by  helping  one  another  (as  I  may  say)  to  hazard  their 
lives  for  I  know  not  what  end,  or  to  what  purpose.  If  her  zeale 
be  so  greate  as  thus  to  adventure,  oh,  let  your  favour  and  pitye 
surinounte  itt,  and  save  her  life.  Let  not  your  forwonted  com 
passion  be  conquered  by  her  inconsiderate  madness ;  and  how 
greately  will  your  renowne  be  spread,  if  by  so  conquering  you 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  469 

become  victorious.  What  shall  I  say  more  ?  I  know  you  are  all 
sensible  of  my  condition,  and  let  the  reflect  be,  and  you  will  see 
what  the  petition  is  and  what  will  give  me  and  mine  peace.  Oh, 
let  mercie's  wings  once  more  soar  above  justice'  ballance,  and  then 
whilst  I  live  shall  I  exalt  your  goodness.  But  otherwise  't  will  be 
a  languishing  sorrowe,  yea,  soe  great  that  I  should  gladly  suffer 
the  blow  att  once  much  rather.  I  shall  forbear  to  trouble  your 
Honors  with  words,  neither  am  I  in  a  capacitye  to  expatiate  my- 
selfe  at  present.  I  only  say  this  :  your  selves  have  been  and  are, 
or  may  be,  husbands  to  wife  or  wives,  and  so  am  I,  yea,  to  one 
most  dearlye  beloved.  Oh,  do  not  you  deprive  me  of  her  ;  but  I 
pray  give  her  me  out  again,  and  I  shall  bee  soe  much  obliged  for 
ever,  that  I  shall  endeavor  continually  to  utter  my  thanks,  and 
render  your  Love  and  Honor  most  renowned.  Pitye  me.  I  beg 
it  with  tears,  and  rest 

Your  most  humble  suppliant,  W.  DYER. 

Most  Honored  Sir,  let  these  lines  by  your  favor  be  my  petition 
to  your  Honorable  General  Court  at  present  sitting. 

Yours,  W.  D. 

Among  the  papers  in  the  State  Archives  is  one  recog 
nizing  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Dyer's  letter :  — 

The  Magistrates  desire  their  brethren  the  Deputies  would  please 
give  them  a  meeting  about  two  hours  hence,  and  that  Mary  Dyer 
be  sent  for  out  of  prison,  to  appear  before  the  whole  Court. 

Assented  to  by  the  Deputies. 
BOSTON,  31st  of  May,  1660. 

Probably  at  this  meeting  Mrs.  Dyer  was  offered  a  release 
at  the  intercession  of  her  husband,  as  she  had  received  it 
previously  at  the  intercession  of  her  son,  if  she  would 
consent  to  leave  the  jurisdiction,  and  that  she  refused  to 
do  so. 

If  her  husband  could  have  answered  for  his  wife,  she 
would  have  lived.  Most  gladly  would  the  magistrates 
have  welcomed  one  word  from  her  own  lips,  that  she 
would  no  more  exasperate  and  defy  them,  but  would  keep 
out  of  their  jurisdiction.  But  she  spoke  quite  other  words. 


470  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

"  She  gave  no  other  answer  but  that  she  denied  our  lawe, 
came  to  bear  witnes  against  it,  and  could  not  choose  but 
conie  and  doe  as  formerly."  She  was  sentenced,  according 
to  the  previous  October  warning,  "  for  her  rebelliously  re 
turning  into  this  jurisdiction,  notwithstanding  the  favour 
of  this  Court  towards  her,"  to  die  on  the  second  day  fol 
lowing,  —  June  1. 

There  were  further  proceedings  at  this  Court,  with  a  show 
of  clemency  in  them,  against  Quakers  returned  from 
banishment.1  Mrs.  Dyer  calmly  and  triumphantly  met  her 
fate.  There  was  to  be  still  one  more,  the  fourth  victim 
to  the  capital  law.  This  was  William  Leddra.  He  had 
been  long  and  often  scourged  and  imprisoned,  here  and  in 
Plymouth,  and  was  one  of  the  most  pertinacious,  and,  as 
the  magistrates  viewed  him,  the  most  insolent  of  those 
who  defied  them  by  returning  from  banishment.  With 
the  same  parade  of  soldiers  and  drummers,  he  was  exe 
cuted  after  the  lecture,  March  14,  16f-J.  His  friends  were 
allowed  to  take  away  his  body  for  interment,  so  that  he 
was  not  thrown  into  the  ground  with  the  others  on  the 
Common.2 

1  Court  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  419. 

2  It  may  be  that  the  following  reference  in  the  Journal  of  Judge  Sewall 
(Sevvall  Papers,  i.  91)  is  to  the  grave  of  Leddra  :  — 

"Aug.  5,  1685.  After  Dorchester  Lecture,  going  to  Mr.  Stoughton's,  I  saw  a 
few  feet  of  ground  enclosed  with  Boards,  which  is  done  by  the  Quakers  out  of  re 
spect  to  some  one  or  more  hanged  and  by  the  Gallows  ;  though  the  Governor 
forbad  them  when  they  asked  Leave." 

An  epistle  which  Leddra  wrote  in  the  jail  before  his  execution,  addressed 
to  "  The  Little  Flock  of  Christ,"  is  a  characteristic  paper  (State  Archives). 
Here  are  extracts  from  it  :  — 

"MosT  DEAR  AND  INWARDLY  BELOVED,  —  The  sweet  influences  of  the  morn 
ing  star,  like  a  flood  distilling  into  my  habitation,  have  so  filled  me  with  the  joy  of 
the  Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  that  my  spirit  is  as  if  it  did  not  inhabit  a  taber 
nacle  of  clay,  but  is  wholly  swallowed  up  in  the  bosom  of  eternity,  from  whence  it 
had  its  being.  Alas  !  Alas  !  what  can  the  wrath  and  spirit  of  man,  that  lusteth  to 
envy,  aggravated  by  the  heat  and  strength  of  the  king  of  the  locusts  which  came  out 
of  the  pit,  do  unto  one  that  is  hid  in  the  secrets  of  the  Almighty  ?  Oh,  my  beloved, 
I  have  waited  like  a  dove  at  the  windows  of  the  ark.  As  the  flowing  of  the  ocean 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  471 

Winlock  Christopherson,  who  was  under  sentence  of 
death  if  he  returned  from  banishment,  had  ventured  to 
present  himself  at  the  trial  of  his  friend  Leddra.  No  one 
of  all  those  who  were  in  peril  of  their  lives  was  more  stout, 
resolved,  defiant,  and  denunciatory  than  he,  —  generally 
called  Christison.  He  said  he  was  ready  to  meet  his 
threatened  fate.  Being  brought  to  trial  in  May,  1661,  the 
Court,  now  greatly  weakened  in  its  severity,  faltered 
about  passing  sentence.  Endicott  was  so  provoked  by  this 
weakness  that  he  absented  himself  for  two  days.  He  was 
induced  to  return  to  his  place,  on  the  promise  that  the  work 
should  proceed.  Finding  the  Court  still  hesitating,  he 
took  upon  himself  to  sentence  Christison  to  death  on 
June  13.  Being  the  last  to  receive  that  sentence,  he  deliv 
ered  himself  from  having  to  suffer  by  it.  Among  the 
papers  in  the  State  Archives  before  referred  to  are  the 
following :  — 

I,  the  condemned  man,  do  give  forth  under  my  hand,  that  if 
I  may  have  my  liberty,  I  have  freedom  to  depart  this  jurisdiction, 
and  I  know  not  that  ever  I  shall  come  into  it  any  more. 

From  the  Goal  in  Boston,  the  7th  day  of  the  4th  mo.  1661. 

WINLOCK  CHRISTISON. 

Upon  the  motion  of  Christopherson,  the  prisoner,  in  making 
known  his  freedom  to  depart,  the  Deputies  do  hereby  grant  him 
liberty,  he  departing  this  Government,  when  he  shall  be  let  out 
of  prison,  as  soon  as  may  be :  with  reference  to  the  consent  of  our 

honored  Magistrates  hereto. 

WILLIAM  TORREY,  Cleric. 

Consented  to  by  the  Magistrates. 
7  (4)  1661.  ED.  RAWSON,  Secretary. 

The  Quaker  historians  do  not  mention  this  case  of  com 
pliance  with  what  the  Court  wished  and  proffered  for  all 

doth  fill  every  creek  and  branch  thereof,  and  as  it  then  retires  again  towards  its  own 
being  and  fulness,  and  leaves  a  Savour  behind  it,  so  doth  the  life  and  virtue  of 
God  flow  into  every  one  of  your  hearts,  whom  He  hath  made  partakers  of  his  Divine 
nature." 


472  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

the  imprisoned  intruders  upon  them.  It  has  been  said 
that  after  all  Christison's  bravery  and  bluster  "  he  showed 
the  white  feather."  It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  sup 
pose-that  his  pluck  and  courage  failed  him  in  view  of  the 
gallows.  A  divine  prompting,  which  he  claimed  had 
brought  him  here,  might  also  release  him  from  bearing 
any  further  testimony. 

But  the  people  would  allow  no  more  of  this  death  penalty. 
Happily,  this  resisting  attitude  of  the  community  and  the 
breaking  down  of  the  Court  seem  to  have  been  contem 
poraneous  with  a  relaxation  of  obduracy  in  the  imprisoned 
Quakers  themselves.  The  magistrates  had  with  great  con 
cern  and  anxiety  noticed  the  rapidly  increasing  mani 
festations  of  discontent  with  their  proceedings,  and  of 
sympathy  with  the  Quakers.  This  was  shown  by  many 
who  could  not  approve  the  behavior  or  the  principles  of 
the  Quakers,  but  believed  they  would  be  harmless  if  let 
alone.  Their  fines  were  paid  and  acts  of  kindness  done 
them  by  these  sympathizers.  We  must  remember  that 
the  whole  power  of  government  was  with  the  small  minor 
ity  as  church  members.  So  far,  then,  from  concluding 
that  every  one  of  general  Puritan  principles  was  a  per 
secutor,  it  would  rather  be  reasonable  to  infer  that  the 
majority  of  the  people  disapproved  of  the  extreme  pro 
ceedings.  This  state  of  public  feeling  was  coincident  with 
an  e.vident  disinclination  on  the  part  of  the  Quakers,  under 
sentence,  to  carry  their  provocation  any  farther.  Whether 
they  were  honorably  released  from  further  defiance  by  a 
satisfied  conscience,  or  by  the  dread  of  the  gallows,  they 
made  the  full  concession  required  of  them. 

It  is  a  relief  to  come  in  the  Records  upon  this  provision 
for  a  general  jail  delivery :  thus,  granting  the  petition  of 
the  Quakers :  — 

"October  16,  1660.  In  answer  to  a  motion  of  the  Quakers 
now  in  prison  that  they  may  have  theire  liberty  to  goe  for  England, 
the  Court  judgeth  it  meete  to  declare  that  all  the  Quakers  now  in 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  473 

prison  shall  forthwith  have  their  libertie  to  goe  for  England 
in  this  ship  now  bound  thither,  if  they  will ;  and  for  such  as  will 
not  goe  for  England,  they  shall  have  liberty  forthwith  to  depart 
this  jurisdiction  within  eight  days,  so  as  they  solemnly  engage, 
under  their  hands,  delivered  by  them  to  the  Governor  or  Dep. 
Gov.,  that  they  will  not  return  into  this  jurisdiction  without  leave 
from  the  Councill  or  Generall  Court  first  by  them  obtained." 1 

At  the  same  Court  Joseph  Nicolson  and  Jane  his  wife, 
in  prison  for  having  returned  after  banishment  on  pain  of 
death,  having  expressed  their  willingness  to  depart  for 
England,  were  allowed  to  do  so.2  As  soon  as  they  reached 
England  they  were  imprisoned  in  Dover  Castle  for  refus 
ing  the  oath. 

To  some  who  have  followed  up  to  this  point  the  narra 
tion  of  a  harrowing  conflict  between  antagonistic  con 
sciences,  it  may  seem  as  if  it  had  ended  in  the  complete 
triumph  of  the  magistrates.  All  the  Quakers  under  duress, 
twenty-seven  in  number,3  besides  the  three  who  were 
doomed  to  the  gallows,  had  agreed  voluntarily  to  leave  the 
jurisdiction.  This  was  all  that  the  magistrates  had  ever 
required  of  them.  Holding  firmly  to  their  own  conviction 
that  these  intruding  strangers,  alleging  a  divine  mission 
to  come  and  overthrow  all  civil  and  social  order  in  the 
country,  were  fanatics  and  nuisances  of  the  most  pestilent 
character,  they  ordered  them  to  leave  the  jurisdiction 
where  they  had  no  right  to  abide.  They  thought  that  if 
the  Quakers  regarded  themselves  as  wronged,  they  should 
obey  the  command  of  their  Master,  and  when  persecuted 
in  one  place  should  go  to  another.  There  had  come  to  be 
three  parties  to  the  conflict :  the  magistrates,  charged  with 
the  defence  -  of  the  commonwealth  ;  the  majority  of  the 
people,  who  were  opposed  to  any  further  capital  proceed 
ings  ;  and  the  Quakers,  the  cause  of  so  much  annoyance. 
It  would  seem  as  if  all  these  three  parties  had  occasion 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  p.  ii.  p.  433.  2  Ibid. 

8  Bishop  gives  their  names  (p.  340). 


474  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

to  be  satisfied.  The  will  of  the  magistrates  had  prevailed 
by  the  recognition  of  their  authority ;  the  people  were  to 
be  spared  any  more  scenes  on  the  scaffold ;  the  Quakers, 
convinced  by  their  own  methods  of  illumination  and  divine 
promptings,  felt  that  they  were  in  conscience  discharged 
from  any  further  "  testimony,"  and  "  had  freedom  to 
depart."  The  general  jail  delivery  was  to  be  welcomed, 
through  whatever  agency  it  had  been  effected.  It  is  al 
ways,  however,  to  be  remembered  that  it  was  the  unflinch 
ing  and  heroic  constancy  of  the  four  victims  that  had  won 
the  people  to  the  resolve  that,  whatever  else  should  be  done 
with  the  Quakers,  no  more  of  them  should  suffer  the  death 
penalty. 

The  General  Court,  meeting  Dec.  19, 1660,  voted  an  Ad 
dress  to  King  Charles  II.,  on  his  restoration,  which  is  spread 
on  the  Records.  It  contains  a  plea  for  the  preservation 
of  their  colonial  rights  and  liberties,  and  a  defence  against 
the  machinations  and  complaints  of  their  enemies  near 
the  throne.  They  well  knew  that  among  these  were  the 
Quakers,  to  whom  the  following  reference  is  made  in  the 
Address:  — 

"  Concerning  the  Quakers,  open  and  capitall  blasphemers,  open 
seducers  from  the  glorious  Trinity,  and  from  the  Holy  Scriptures 
as  the  rule  of  life,  open  enemies  to  government  itself  as  established 
in  the  hands  of  any  but  men  of  theire  owne  principles,  malignant 
and  assiduous  promoters  of  doctrines  directly  tending  to  subvert 
both  our  churches  and  State,  after  all  other  meanes  for  a  long 
time  used  in  vaine,  wee  were  at  last  constreined,  for  our  owne 
safety,  to  passe  a  sentence  of  banishment  against  them  upon  paine 
of  death.  Such  was  their  daingerous,  impetuous,  and  desperat  tur- 
bulency,  both  to  religion  and  the  state  civil  and  ecclesiasticall,  as 
that,  how  unwillingly  soever,  could  it  have  binn  avoyded,  the  mag 
istrate  at  last,  in  conscience  both  to  God  and  man,  judged  himself 
called,  for  the  defence  of  all,  to  keepe  the  passage  with  the  point 
of  the  sword  held  towards  them.  This  could  do  no  harme  to  him 
that  would  be  warned  thereby  ;  theire  wittingly  rushing  themselves 


THE   INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  475 

thereupon  was  theire  owne  act,  and  wee,  with  all  humillity,  conceive 
a  crime  bringing  theire  blood  on  theire  owne  head.  The  Quakers 
died,  not  because  of  theire  other  crimes,  how  capitoll  soever,  but 
upon  their  superadded  presumptuous  and  incorrigible  contempt  of 
authority ;  breaking  in  upon  us  notwithstanding  theire  sentence  of 
banishment  made  knowne  to  them.  Had  they  not  binn  restreined, 
so  farr  as  appeared,  there  was  too  much  cause  to  feare  that  wee 
ourselves  must  quickly  have  died,  or  worse :  and  such  was  theire 
insolency,  that  they  would  not  be  restreined  but  by  death ;  nay, 
had  they  at  last  but  promised  to  depart  the  jurisdiction,  and  not  to 
returne  without  leave  from  authority,  wee  should  have  binn  glad 
of  such  an  opportunity  to  have  said  they  should  not  dye."  z 

The  view  which  the  magistrates  took  of  their  own  course 
and  responsibility  is  assorted  with  the  utmost  strength 
which  they  could  give  to  it.  We  are  left  to  decide  as 
intelligently  and  as  shrewdly  as  we  are  able,  whether 
their  plea  in  self-defence  expresses  the  blind  and  relent 
less  severity  of  bigotry,  exasperated  by  defiance,  or 
an  honest  and  sincere  conviction  that  such  defiance  of 
their  authority  really  threatened  the  wreck  of  govern 
ment. 

Was  it  with  sham  pretence,  or  with  reason  grounded  on 
apprehensions,  that  the  authorities  alleged  that  beyond  their 
heresies  the  Quakers  were  to  be  dreaded  as  enemies  to  the 
peace  and  security  of  society  ?  That  able  Quaker  cham 
pion,  Edward  Burroughs,2  in  his  appeal  to  the  King  in  their 
behalf,  writes :  "  Did  ever  these  poor  people  whom  they  con 
demned  and  put  to  a  shameful  death  lift  up  a  hand  against 
them,  or  appear  in  any  turbulent  gesture  towards  them  ? 
Were  they  ever  found  with  any  carnal  weapon  about  them  ?  " 
etc.  And  Mr.  Doyle  3  calls  it  a  "  flimsy  and  dishonest  ex- 
c*use  that  the  Quakers  were  dealt  with  not  as  heretics,  but 
as  enemies  to  civil  order."  The  explanation  of  this  is  to 
be  inferred  from  preceding  statements.  The  Quakers  never 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  p.  451. 

2  Collected  Writings,  p.  756.  8  Puritan  Colonies,  ii.  171. 


476  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

committed,  or  even  threatened,  any  act  of  violence,  nor 
raised  a  carnal  weapon ;  nor  were  they,  as  already  stated, 
in  any  way  opposed  to  lawful  magistracy  within  its  province. 
Nevertheless,  it  was  not  their  hands  nor  their  weapons  which 
the  magistrates  dreaded,  but  simply  their  tongues,  the  bur 
dens  which  they  uttered,  their  contempt  of  the  orders  and 
laws  of  the  magistrates.  These  truculencies  of  speech 
and  conduct  the  magistrates  insisted  on  regarding  as 
dangerous  instruments  of  sedition  and  anarchy  as  fire 
arms  would  have  been.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the 
repeated  declarations  of  the  magistrates  to  this  effect 
were  hypocritical. 

We  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  magistrates,  some  of  the 
deputies,  and  such  of  the  freemen,  church  members,  as  felt 
most  outraged  by  the  persistency  of  the  Quakers,  arid  were 
still  disposed  to  treat  them  with  the  utmost  severity,  were 
now  placed  in  a  position  of  extreme  embarrassment.  They 
well  knew  that  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  their  harshest  pro 
ceedings,  and  a  spirit  of  sympathy  and  commiseration,  even 
of  admiration,  for  the  Quakers,  were  rapidly  strengthening 
in  the  community.  No  more  capital  punishments  would 
be  tolerated.  What  then  should  the  magistrates  do  in 
this  dilemma?  The  Court,  May  22,  1661,  passed  a  new 
law:  — 

"This  Court,  being  desirous  to  try  all  meanes  with  as  much 
lenity  as  may  consist  with  our  safety  to  prevent  the  intrusions  of 
the  Quakers,  who,  besides  theire  absurd  and  blasphemous  doctrine, 
doe,  like  rouges  and  vagabonds,  come  in  upon  us,  and  have  not 
been  restreinecl  by  the  laws  already  provided,  have  ordered  that 
every  such  vagabond  Quaker  found  within  any  part  of  this  ju 
risdiction  should  be  taken  before  a  magistrate,  and  being  ad 
judged  to  be  a  wandering  Quaker, —  namely,  one  that  hath  not  any 
dwelling  or  orderly  allowance  as  an  inhabitant  of  this  jurisdiction, 
—  and  not  giving  civil  respect  by  the  usuall  gestures  thereof,  or  by 
any  other  way  or  meanes  manifesting  himself  to  be  a  Quaker,  shall 
by  warrant  to  an  officer  be  stripped  naked  from  the  middle  up- 


THE  INTRUSION   OF   THE  QUAKERS.  477 

wards,  and  tied  to  a  cart's  tayle,  and  whipped  "  from  town  to  town, 
by  the  constable  of  each,  till  out  of  the  jurisdiction.1 

This  punishment  to  be  repeated  on  a  second  and  a  third 
return.  On  a  fourth  return,  at  the  discretion  of  the  magis 
trate,  to  be  branded  with  the  letter  "  R "  on  the  left 
shoulder,  and  again  whipped  and  sent  away.  Returning 
yet  again,  "  then  to  be  proceeded  against  as  incorrigible 
rogues  and  ennemies  to  the  common  peace,"  to  be  im 
prisoned  and  tried  under  the  law  of  banishment  on  pain 
of  death.  This  was  for  vagabond  intruders  or  strangers. 
For  Quakers  arising  here  the  penalties  were  substantially 
the  same. 

All  Quakers  then  in  prison  were  to  be  informed  of  this 
law,  and  to  be  released,  passing  unharmed  from  constable 
to  constable  out  of  the  jurisdiction,  and  if  they  returned, 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  the  above  provisions.  Two 
of  the  prisoners  who  had  stood  mute  before  the  Court,  re 
fusing  to  give  any  answer,  were  sentenced  to  be  whipped 
both  in  Boston  and  Dedham,  and  then  sent  out  of  the 
jurisdiction. 

Some  of  our  writers,  alike  in  prose  and  in  poetry,  have 
assumed,  and  have  written  on  the  assumption,  that  the  de 
liverance  of  the  Quakers  was  effected  by  the  interposition 
in  their  behalf  of  King  Charles  II.2  It  will  appear,  from  a 
clear  statement  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  that  the  interposi 
tion  of  the  King,  instead  of  relieving  the  Quakers  from  such 
penalties  as  the  Court  would  inflict  upon  them,  proved 
most  harmful  to  them.  As  Mr.  Doyle  very  forcibly  puts  it, 
the  Quakers  having  asked,  and  supposing  they  had  received, 
the  protection  of  the  King,  were  to  their  sorrow  reminded 
of  the  warning,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes."  Long 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  3. 

2  The  writer  of  these  pages  some  years  ago  gave  a  degree  of  assent  to  this 
view.     See  "  Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  i.  187.    But  a  stricter  attention 
to  dates  and  to  the  fact  that  popular  feeling  here  had  anticipated  the  command 
of  the  King,  satisfied  him  of  his  mistake. 


478  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

fellow,  in  his  New  England  Tragedy,  "  John  Endicott,"  puts 
into  the  Governor's  mouth,  addressing  his  Deputy  Belling- 
hain  the  order  for  the  release  of  the  imprisoned  Quakers, 
these  words :  — 

"  But  see  that  none  of  them  be  sent  to  England 
To  bear  false  witness,  and  to  spread  reports 
That  might  be  prejudicial  to  ourselves." 

Now,  so  far  were  the  magistrates  from  fearing  any*  harm 
to  be  done  them  by  Quakers  reporting  their  doings  in  Eng 
land,  and  from  restraining  their  going  thither,  that,  as  we 
have  read  in  the  Court  order,  they  were  released  from 
prison  on  the  express  condition  of  their  promise  to  go  there. 
Any  one  who  has  read  diligently  the  Records  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court  of  Massachusetts  at  that  period,  will  find  matter 
alike  of  amazement  and  amusement  in  the  hardly  disguised 
adroitness  and  truculency  with  which  the  authorities  treated 
the  anointed  monarchs  successively  occupying  the  throne. 
There  is  adulation,  something  that  looks  very  much  like 
fawning,  and  hypocritical  deference  and  flattery  to  the  King 
in  their  words,  while  utter  disloyalty  and  disobedience  were 
in  the  hearts  of  the  magistrates.  They  cared  nothing  for 
the  ill  reports  which  the  Quakers  might  spread  of  them  in 
England,  for  they  knew  they  could  tell  their  own  side  of  the 
story,  and  they  were  well  informed  as  to  the  virulent  treat 
ment  of  the  Quakers  there.  Indeed,  it  is  exceedingly 
doubtful  whether  Endicott,  Bellingham,  and  their  asso 
ciates  would  not  have  found  some  ingenious  method  of 
disobeying  a  positive  command  of  the  King  if  it  thwarted 
their  own  purpose.  At  any  rate,  in  the  case  before  us 
the  direction  of  the  monarch  had  been  anticipated. 

Edward  Burroughs,  an  English  Friend,  learning  of  the 
just  quoted  Address  sent  by  the  Court  to  Charles  II.  on 
hearing  of  his  restoration,  wrote  a  very  sharp  and  able  an 
swer  to  it,  which  is  supposed  to  have  reached  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  monarch.  He  also  obtained  an  audience,  and 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  479 

by  his  earnest  pleading  drew  from  the  monarch  a  letter  to 
the  magistrates  which  he  allowed  to  be  sent  in  a  private 
vessel,  provided  by  the  Quakers,  to  Governor  Endicott. 
Samuel  Shattuck,  a  banished  Salem  Quaker  then  in  Lon 
don,  was  the  bearer  of  the  letter.  Wearing  his  own  hat, 
while  Endicott  removed  his  to  receive  "  a  message  from  the 
King,"  the  Quaker  had  a  brilliant  triumph.  After  a  con 
ference  with  his  deputy,  Bellingham,  the  Governor  said, 
"  We  shall  obey  the  King."  This  is  said  by  the  Quaker 
historians,  but  not  by  Shattuck.1 

The  royal  letter,  which  follows,  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
been  substantially  anticipated  as  to  its  principal  demand 
by  the  action  of  the  Court.  The  general  jail  delivery  of 
thirty-one  Quakers,  including  the  three  under  the  death 
sentence  who  had  voluntarily  agreed  to  go  off,  was  ordered 
by  the  Court  in  October,  1660.  The  King's  letter  was 
dated  at  Whitehall  a  year  afterward.  Let  us  claim  what 
ever  of  relief  we  can  find  in  reminding  ourselves  that  it 
was  the  stern  opposition  and  protest  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  Puritan  Colony,  and  not  the  King's  command, 
that  had  opened  the  gates  of  mercy. 

CHARLES  R. 

TRUSTY  AND  WELL-BELOVED,  —  We  greet  you  well.  Hav 
ing  been  informed  that  several  of  our  Subjects  amongst  you 
called  Quakers  have  been  and  are  Imprisoned  by  you,  whereof 
some  have  been  Executed,  and  others  (as  hath  been  represented  to 
us)  are  in  danger  to  undergo  the  like,  We  have  thought  fit  to  sig- 
nifie  Our  Pleasure  in  that  behalf  for  the  future ;  and  do  hereby 

1  Shattuck  sent  a  letter  to  his  friends  in  England  describing  his  voyage 
and  reception  by  Endicott.  It  is  without  the  dramatic  features  given  by  the 
Quaker  historians,  —  save  the  restoration  to  him  of  his  hat,  which  had  been 
taken  from  him  before  his  message  was  delivered.  It  is  pleasant  to  have  in 
the  letter  the  recognition  by  Shatcuck  of  the  sympathy  of  the  people  with  the 
errand  on  which  he  came  :  "The  moderate  sort  rejoiced  to  see  me  ;  the  truth 
had  gotten  prety  much  ground  of  the  Adversary."  He  remained  between 
shipboard  and  on  land,  and  visited  some  friends  in  jail.  The  letter  is  in 
Aspinwall  Papers,  4  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ix.  160-162. 


480  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

require,  That  if  there  be  any  of  those  People  called  Quakers 
amongst  you,  now  already  Condemned  to  suffer  Death  or  other 
corporal  Punishment,  or  that  are  Imprisoned  and  Obnoxious  to 
the  like  Condemnation,  you  are  to  forbear  to  proceed  any  further 
therein,  but  that  you  forthwith  send  the  said  Persons  (whether 
Condemned  or  Imprisoned)  over  into  this  Our  Kingdom  of  Eng 
land,  together  with  the  respective  Crimes  or  Offences  laid  to  their 
Charge,  to  the  end  such  Course  may  be  taken  with  them  here  as 
shall  be  agreable  to  Our  Laws  and  their  Demerits :  And  for  so 
doing,  these  Our  Letters  shall  be  your  sufficient  Warrant  and 
Discharge.  Given  at  Our  Court  at  Whitehall,  the  ninth  day  of 
Sept.  1661. 

By  his  Majesty's  Command, 

WILLIAM  MORRIS. 

There  is  some  confusion  as  to  what  followed  the  im 
mediate  reception  by  the  magistrates  of  this  royal  letter. 
John  Whiting,  in  his  Reply  to  the  account  of  the  Quakers 
given  by  Cotton  Mather  in  his  Magnalia,1  says  that  when 
the  jailer  was  called  upon  by  Friends  to  release  some  then 
in  prison,  according  to  the  King's  command,  he  replied  that 
"  it  was  not  for  them,"  and  that  the  magistrates  were  still 
urging  jury  trials  for  capital  cases.  Of  later  date,  and  not 
till  after  the  meeting  of  the  Court,  Nov.  27, 1661,  we  find 
this  order  to  — 

*  WILLIAM  SALTER,  keeper  of  the  prison  in  Boston,  —  You  are 
required,  by  authority  and  order  of  the  General  Court,  to  release 
and  discharge  the  Quakers  who  at  present  are  in  your  custody. 
See  that  you  do  not  neglect  this. 

EDWARD  RAWSON,  Sec. 
BOSTON,  9th  December,  1661. 

Whiting  does  not  explain  to  us  who  the  prisoners  were 
whom  the  jailer  refused  to  release  on  the  ground  that  "  the 
order  was  not  for  them  "  as  Quakers.  Nor  can  I  clear  the 
perplexity.  In  the  interval  after  the  jail  delivery,  it  may 

1  In  Bishop,  p.  96. 


THE   INTRUSION    OF   THE   QUAKERS.  481 

have   been   that   some  new-comers  or  sympathizers  were 
under  restraint. 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  General  Court  to  take  action 
on  the  letter  of  the  King,  a  rumor  was  in  circulation  that 
he  had  granted  certain  immunities  to  the  Quakers.  A 
paper  in  the  State  Archives  informs  us  of  the  notice  taken 
of  this  rumor  on  June  4,  1661,  by  the  deputies,  before  the 
King's  letter  was  written,  though  their  proposition  was  not 
assented  to  by  the  magistrates.  The  paper  recites  :  — 

"Whereas  it  seemeth  at  present  to  this  Court,  by  such  intelli 
gence  as  we  have,  to  be  uncertain  what  persons  (whether  Quakers 
or  others),  under  pretence  of  authority  from  England,  may  attempt 
to  publish  or  act  in  this  Jurisdiction  during  the  vacancy  of  the 
General  Court  [it  is  ordered  that  all  persons  putting  forth  any 
writing  or  acting  anything  (under  pretence  of  authority  from  Eng 
land  or  elsewhere)  against  the  existing  laws],  especially  that 
against  a  conspiracy  for  altering  this  government,  shall  be  ar 
rested  by  a  magistrate  and  imprisoned  without  bail." 

The  Governor,  Endicott,  summoned  the  Court  to  meet  in 
Boston,  Nov.  27,  1661.  The  critical  character  of  the  occa 
sion  was  fully  realized,  as  appears  by  another  interesting 
paper  in  the  State  Archives,  showing  deliberation  in  pro 
ceedings  when  the  Court's  authority  was  under  question. 
The  paper  is  entitled,  "  Answer  of  Elders  to  the  Questions 
of  the  General  Court  relative  to  the  Quakers." 

The  Elders  being  called  to  attend  the  Honored  General  Court 
at  a  Session  held  at  Boston,  Nov.  27,  1661,  have  unto  certain 
queries  then  and  there  proposed  to  them  returned  their  Appre 
hensions  as  followeth  : 

Quaery  1.  Whether  the  execution  of  our  Laws  referring  to 
the  Punishment  of  the  Quakers  as  such  shall  be  suspended  pro 
tempore,  or  what  else  to  be  done  therein  ? 

Ans.  Upon  his  Majestie's  letters  we  conceive  it  expedient 
that  Execution  of  death,  or  corporal  punishment,  according  as  is 
expressed  therein,  be  suspended  pro  tempore.  Provided  that  some 

31 


482  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

effectual  course  be  also  taken  in  the  interim  for  the  restraint  of 
turbulencies  in  church  or  state,  which  the  King's  warrant,  to  our 
apprehension,  no  ways  inhibits,  but  rather  encourageth  thereunto. 

Qu.  2.  Whether  the  Quakers  in  Prison  should  be  sent  for 
England  with  their  accusations,  or  otherwise  released  out  of  prison. 

Ans.  We  think  it  much  better  that  the  Quakers  in  prison 
should  be  sent  for  England  with  their  accusations,  than  that  they 
should  be  released  out  of  prison. 

Qu.  3.  Whether  this  Court  is  called  to  make  a  humble  ad 
dress  by  petition  to  his  Majesty,  in  answer  to  his  letters  now 
brought  concerning  the  Quakers? 

Ans.    To  this  3d  Qu.  we  answer  affirmatively. 

The  fourth  and  fifth  queries,  and  the  answers  to  them, 
ask  and  assent  to  the  fitness  of  sending  one  or  more  agents 
to  England  with  provision  to  act  in  the  country's  behalf. 

Another  paper  in  the  Archives  is  entitled  "  Votes  as  to 
Laws  against  Quakers." 

1.  Qu.    Whether  the  Execution  of  our  Laws  referring  to  the 
Quakers'  corporal  punishment  shall  be  suspended  pro  tempore  ?  The 
Deputies  have  voted  that  it  be  suspended  till  the  next  Court  of 
Election. 

The  Magistrates  dissent. 

2.  Whether   the    Quakers   now   in    Prison    shall   be    sent    to 
England  with  their  accusations?     The  Deputies  have  voted  in  the 
Negative. 

The  Magistrates  consent  hereto. 

4.  Whether  this   Court   will   send   an    Agent   to    England  to 
prosecute  our  affairs  there  ?     The  Deputies  have  voted  in  the  Neg 
ative.     The  Magistrates  have  voted  in  the  Affirmative. 

5.  Whether  there  should  be  monies  raised  to  effect  the  same  ? 
The  Deputies  have  voted  in  the  Negative.     The  Magistrates  have 
voted  this  also  in  the  Affirmative. 

The  3d  Question  [relating  to  "  an  Humble  Address "]  not 
being  agreed  on,  is  further  to  be  considered  of. 

WILLIAM  TOKREY,  Cler. 

Afterwards,  Magistrates  and  Deputies  both  consent  to  an  Ad 
dress  to  his  Majesty.  EDW.  RAWSON,  Secretary. 


THE   INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  483 

Previous  to  the  receipt  of  the  King's  letter  about  the 
Quakers,  the  Court  had  on  Aug.  7,  1661,  indited  another 
letter  to  him,  the  strain  of  which  is  fawning  and  hypocriti 
cal  in  the  most  offensive  degree.  A  portion  of  it  may  be 
given  here,  premising  that  the  reference  in  it  to  Yenner, 
the  leader  of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  fanatics  in  London,  who 
had  been  a  cooper  in  Salem,  Mass.,  adroitly  suggests  "  that 
he  had  come  to  us  before  he  went  from  us." 

To  the  high  and  mighty  prince,  Charles  the  Second,  by  the  grace  of 
God  King  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  Defender,  etc. 

ILLUSTRIOUS  SIR,  —  That  majestie  and  benignity  hath  sat 
upon  the  throne  whereunto  your  outcasts  made  their  former  ad- 
dresse,  witness  this  second  eucharisticall  approach  unto  the  best  of 
kings,  who,' to  other  titles  of  royaltie  common  to  him  with  other 
gods  amongst  men,  delighted  therein  more  peculiarly  to  conforme 
himself  to  the  God  of  gods,  in  that  he  hath  not  despised  nor  ab 
horred,  etc.  This  script,  gratulatorie  and  lowly,  is  the  reflection 
of  the  gracious  rayes  of  Christian  majestie,  etc.  We  are  deeply 
sensible  of  your  majestie's  intimation  relating  to  instruments  of 
Satan  acted  by  impulse.  Diabolicall  Venner  (not  to  say  whence 
he  came  to  us)  went  out  from  us  because  he  was  not  of  us.  God 
preserve  your  majestie  from  all  enemies  agitated  by  an  inf email 
spirit,  under  what  appellations  soever  disguised.  Luther  some 
times  wrote  to  the  senate  of  Mulhoysen  to  beware  of  the  woolfe 
Muncer.1 

The  Address  of  the  Court  in  answer  to  the  letter  of  the 
King,  of  Sept.  9,  1661,  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  just  and  necessary  rules  of  our  government  and  condition 
for  preservation  of  religion,  order,  and  peace,  hath  induced  the 
authority  here  established  from  time  to  time  to  make  and  sharpen 
lawes  against  Quakers  in  reference  to  their  restles  intrusions  and 
impetuous  disturbance,  and  not  any  propensity  or  any  inclination 
in  us  to  punish  them  in  person  or  estate,  as  is  evident  by  our 
graduall  proceeding  with  them,  releasing  some  condemned  and 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  32. 


484  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

others  liable  to  condemnation,  and  all  imprisoned  were  released 
and  sent  out  of  our  borders ;  all  which,  notwithstanding  theire 
restless  spiritts,  have  mooved  some  of  them  to  returne,  and  others 
to  fill  the  royall  eares  of  our  soveraigne  lord  the  king  with  com 
plaints  against  us,  and  have,  by  their  wearied  solicitations  in  our 
absence,  so  farr  prevayled  as  to  obteine  a  letter  from  his  majesty 
to  forbeare  their  corporall  punishment  or  death.  Although  wee 
hope,  and  doubt  not,  but  that  if  his  majesty  were  rightly  informed 
he  would  be  farr  from  giving  them  such  favour,  or  weakening  his 
authority  here  so  long  and  orderly  setled,  yet,  that  wee  may  not 
in  the  least  olfend  his  majesty,  this  Court  doth  heereby  order  and 
declare  that  the  execution  of  the  lawes  in  force  against  Quakers, 
as  such,  so  farr  as  they  respect  corporall  punishment  or  death,  be 
suspended  untill  this  Court  take  further  order."  1 

Magistrate  Bradstreet  and  Elder  Norton  were  sent  on 
their  agency  to  England  with  many  instructions  on  various 
matters.2  The  one  of  concern  here  was,  that  they  should 
"  indeavor  to  take  off  all  scandall  and  objections  which  are 
mad<e  or  may  be  made  against  us."  3 

Meanwhile,  pending  the  issue  of  the  two  addresses  made 
to  the  King,  the  Court,  by  an  order  of  May  7,  1662,  which, 
though  not  mentioning  the  Quakers,  included  them  under 
"  the  vagrant  and  vagabond  persons,  as  well  inhabitants 
as  forreigners,  that  wander  from  their  families,  relations, 
and  dwelling-places,"  still  provided  for  their  corporal  pun 
ishment  from  town  to  town.4  Without  looking  outside  the 
Records,  we  see  the  evidence  of  a  feverish  excitement  in 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  34. 

2  These  agents  might  have  had  a  perilous  experience  in  England  had  it  not 
been  for  the  forbearance  and  magnanimity  of  some  of  the  Friends,  who  per 
sonally  challenged  them  for  their  share  in  the  proceedings  here  against  their 
brethren.     The  father  of  their  victim,   Robinson,  was  prompted   to  bring  a 
complaint.     Fox  advised  that  they  be  left  to  "the  dealing  of  the  Lord." 
He  gives  in  his  Journal  a  charmingly  characteristic  account  of  an  interview 
with  them  ending  in  their  discomfiture.     The  agents  had  ventured  to  plead 
that  the  Quakers  had  been  dealt  with  as  English  law  dealt  with  Jesuits. 
"But,"  replied  Fox,   "you  know  they  were  not  Jesuits." 

3  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  37.  4  Ibid.,  p.  43. 


THE  INTRUSION   OP  THE   QUAKERS.  485 

the  community,  marking  this  as  a  crisis  for  the  more  reso 
lute  of  the  magistrates  in  maintaining  their  defied  author 
ity.  They  complained  that  Quakers,  hoping  to  receive 
protection  from  the  interposition  of  the  King,  roamed 
about  the  towns  and  villages,  finding  lodging  and  food 
with  sympathizing  inhabitants,  drawing  multitudes  away 
from  their  necessary  employments,  breaking  the  quiet  of 
the  Lord's  Day,  and  causing  frights  and  panics  for  nervous 
people  by  their  denunciatory  prophesyings  in  the  meeting 
houses.  So  the  magistrates  pertinaciously  held  to  their 
course  of  severity.  They  were  evidently  in  no  fear  of  the 
King.  Knowing  well  that  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
the  Quakers  were  at  the  time  meeting  the  penalties  of  the 
law,  suffering  from  mobs,  and  rotting  in  jails  in  England, 
they  would  not  believe  that  they  would  be  forbidden  self- 
protection  from  these  offenders  here,  where-  disorder  and 
sedition  were  more  threatening.  A  ship-commander  had 
unwittingly,  not  knowing  the  character  of  his  passenger, 
brought  into  the  town  a  woman  Quaker,  "  a  decrepit  per 
son,  a  notable  and  fitt  instrument  of  that  cursed  sect,  to 
divulge  their  tenents,  and  came  furnished  with  many  blas 
phemous  and  haereticall  bookes,  which  she  had  spread 
abroad."  The  captain  professed  his  sorrow  for  his  act, 
and  promised  to  keep  her  on  board  and  to  return  her 
whence  she  came.  His  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds  was 
remitted,  on  his  giving  a  barrel  of  powder.1  Stiffening  in 
its  purpose,  on  Oct.  8,  1662,  the  Court  announced  that  — 

"  for  some  reasons  inducing,  it  had  judged  meet  to  suspend  the 
execution  of  the  lawes  against  Quakers,  so  farr  as  they  respect 
corpora]  1  punishment  or  death,  during  the  Court's  pleasure.  Now, 
forasmuch  as  new  complaints  are  made  to  this  Court  of  such 
persons  abounding,  especially  in  the  easterne  parts,  endeavoring  to 
drawe  away  others  to  that  wicked,  —  the  law,  title,  Vagabond 
Quakers,  of  May,  1661,  shall  henceforth  be  in  force  in  all  respects, 
provided  that  theire  whipping  be  but  through  three  townes."  2 
1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  55.  2  Ibid.,  p.  59. 


486  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

These  brutal  scenes  at  the  cart's  tail  —  so  in  keeping 
with  the  police  system  of  those  days  in  England,  so  revolt 
ing  as  to  be  impossible  of  enactment  in  our  own  times  — 
had  their  aggravation  or  relief,  according  to  the  measure 
of  barbarity  or  humanity  in  the  officer,  and  the  behavior, 
whether  passionate  in  remonstrance  or  sympathizing,  of 
the  lookers-on.  The  people  of  Dover  —  now  New  Hamp 
shire  —  petitioned  the  Court  for  more  severity  "  against 
the  spreading  of  the  wicked  errors  of  the  Quakers  amongst 
them,"  and  the  local  magistrate  was  instructed  to  execute 
the  laws.1  Oct.  21, 1663,  the  Court  ordered, — 

"  Whereas,  it  is  found  by  experience  that  there  are  many  who 
are  inhabitants  of  this  jurisdiction  which  are  ennemies  to  all  gov 
ernment,  civil  and  ecclesiasticall,  who  will  not  yeild  obedience  to 
authority,  but  make  it  much  of  theire  religion  to  be  in  opposition 
thereto,  and  refuse  to  beare  armes  under  others,"  —  combining  in 
some  towns  to  make  parties  and  influence  elections,  and  abstain 
from  public  worship,  —  "be  made  uncapable  of  voting  in  all  civil 
assemblies,"  and  be  fined.2 

At  length  the  Court  received  the  expected  answer  from 
the  King.  His  letter  contained  other  matters  which  will  be 
referred  to  in  another  connection.  The  following  passage 
in  the  letter  concerns  the  matter  now  before  us :  — 

"  Wee  cannot  be  understood  hereby  to  direct  or  wish  that  any 
indulgence  should  be  granted  to  those  persons  commonly  called 
Quakers,  whose  principles  being  inconsistent  with  any  kind  of 
government,  wee  have  found  it  necessary,  by  the  advice  of  our 
Parliament  here,  to  make  sharp  lawes  against  them,  and  are  well 
contented  that  you  doe  the  like  there."  3 

The  Quakers  had  appealed  to  the  King  against  the  mag 
istrates  of  Massachusetts.  Most  disastrous  was  the  result 
for  the  sufferers.  The  Quaker  historians  give  us  the  for 
mer  letter  of  the  King ;  but  whether  from  disappointment, 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  69.          2  Ibid.,  p.  88.          8  Ibid.,  p.  165. 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE  QUAKERS.  487 

or  some  other  feeling,  they  suppress  this.  Considering 
that  capital  proceedings  had  been  already  abandoned,  not 
because  of  the  prohibition  of  the  King,  but  by  the  breaking 
down  of  the  Court  through  the  protest  of  the  people,1  the 
magistrates  now  felt  that  they  had  the  royal  sanction  for 
"  sharp  lawes  "  against  the  Quakers,  like  his  own. 

The  facts  relating  to  the  interposition  of  the  King  in 
behalf  of  the  Quakers  appear  from  the  Records  to  be  as 
follows :  No  prisoners,  with  the  charges  against  them,  were 
sent  by  the  Court  to  England,  as  the  King  had  ordered. 
Such  of  them  as  voluntarily  chose  to  go  there  were  at  lib 
erty  to  do  so.  The  prisoners  under  capital  sentence  had 
previously  consented  to  leave  the  jurisdiction.  While  some 
of  the  magistrates  would  still  have  been  willing  to  inflict 
the  death  penalty,  the  protest  of  the  people  and  the  break 
ing  down  of  the  Court  had  disabled  them.  If  other  cor 
poral  punishments  were  temporarily  suspended,  they  did 
not  cease  at  the  command  of  the  King,  and  were  afterwards 
renewed  as  by  his  sanction  in  his  second  letter. 

The  most  offensive  and  extravagant  of  the  eccentricities 
of  deportment  in  individual  Quakers  occurred  after  the 
harshest  severity  of  the  treatment  of  them  had  been  much 
relaxed,  and  popular  respect  and  sympathy  had  been  largely 
drawn  to  them.  It  is  fitting  to  state,  however,  that  the  cases 
to  be  mentioned  were  exceptional  ones.  The  morals,  behav 
ior,  manners,  and  speech  even  of  the  rudest  of  the  Quakers 
were  always  rigidly  conformed  to  decency  and  purity. 
In  no  single  case  did  they  furnish  occasion  for  scandal. 
Not  a  reproach  for  any  moral  offence  rests  upon  any  one 
of  them ;  and  this  is  true,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
•individuals  of  either  sex  wandered  about  together  in  their 

1  Mr.  Doyle  (Puritan  Colonies  in  New  England,  ii.  172)  writes:  "Inas 
much  as  the  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  already  changed  its  policy  towards 
the  Quakers,  it  is  clear  that  they  were  moved  by  the  dread  of  royal  interposi 
tion,  and  not  by  that  interposition  itself."  In  saying  this  he  seems  to  have 
overlooked  the  opposition  and  disgust  of  the  majority  of  the  people  which 
compelled  the  failure  of  the  sanguinary  law. 


488  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

missions,  and  their  sentimental  relations  were  fond  and 
gushing.  The  wife  of  Eliakim  Wardel,  of  Hampton,  de 
scribed  as  a  u  chaste  and  tender  woman,"  of  "  exemplary 
modesty,"  five  years  after  the  last  execution  in  Boston, 
having  embraced  Friends'  principles,  had  forsaken  public 
worship,  though  often  asked  to  attend  and  give  reasons  for 
her  course.  At  last  she  startled  the  congregation  at  New- 
bury  by  going  through  the  aisles  of  the  meeting-house 
wholly  unclothed.  The  Quaker  historians  explain  her 
"  prophetic  act"  as  a  testimony  against  the  immodest  ex 
posure  of  the  females  made  by  the  magistrates  when  they 
were  stripped  to  the  waist  to  be  scourged. 

About  the  same  time  Deborah  Wilson,  described  as  u  a 
young  woman  of  a  very  modest  and  retired  life,"  went 
through  the  streets,  without  clothing,  for  like  testimony. 
Both  these  women  suffered  scourging.  In  1677  Margaret 
Brewster,  of  Barbadoes,  came  to  Boston,  "  having  a  fore 
sight  given  her  of  a  visitation  of  the  black  pox,  which 
required  her  to  proclaim  it  during  public  worship."  So, 
with  three  other  women  and  a  man,  she  entered  the  South 
Meeting-house  in  Boston,  on  Sunday,  "  in  Sackcloth,  with 
Ashes  upon  her  Head,  and  barefoot,  and  her  Face 
blacked."  l  She  caused  great  consternation  and  horror, 
so  affrighting  some  females  as  to  lead  to  serious  conse 
quences  for  them.  This  case  may  be  an  illustration  of 
what  the  Puritans  believed  to  be  a  spirit  of  fanaticism 
roused  in  the  Quakers  in  their  ecstasies  and  breedings 
over  supposed  promptings  from  God.  She  told  the  Court 
that  she  had  been  brought  near  to  death  because  she  had 
had  this  divine  monition  for  three  years  and  had  neglected 
it.  She  received  twenty  lashes  for  her  act.  Within  a  few 
days  twenty-two  Quakers  were  scourged  for  attending  their 
meetings.  Protests  from  abroad  and  at  home  were  so  dis 
approving  and  indignant  that  this  was  the  last  occasion 
in  which  the  lash  was  used  here  against  Quakers.  And 

1  Besse,  ii.  260. 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  489 

from  this  date,  notwithstanding  the  exceptional  cases  just 
mentioned,  the  more  objectionable  manifestations  of  the 
Quakers  began  to  diminish. 

That  a  portion  of  the  Court  retained  all  its  bitterness 
against  the  Quakers  when  it  could  no  longer  visit  its 
direst  penalties  upon  them,  appears  from  the  following 
reference  to  them  in  the  summary  review  of  public  woes 
during  the  Indian  War.  In  November,  1675,  the  Court 
declares  :  — 

"  Whereas,  it  may  be  found  amongst  us,  that  men's  thresholds 
are  sett  up  by  God's  thresholds,  and  man's  posts  besides  God's  posts, 
espeacially  in  the  open  meetings  of  Quakers,  whose  damnable 
hoerisies,  abominable  idolatrys,  are  hereby  promoted,  embraced, 
and  practised,  to  the  scandall  of  religion,  hazard  of  souls,  and  provo 
cation  of  divine  jealousie  against  this  people  ;  for  prevention  and 
reformation  whereof,  it  is  ordered  by  this  Court  th.it  every  person 
found  at  a  Quakers'  meeting  shall  be  apprehended  and  committed 
to  the  house  of  correction,  and  there  to  have  the  discipline  of  the 
house  applied  to  them,  and  to  be  kept  to  worke  with  bread  and 
water  for  three  days  and  then  released,"  l  or  pay  as  fine  five 
pounds. 

As  had  been  the  case  with  the  Baptists,  so  it  was  with 
the  Quakers.  Firmness  and  persistency,  with  support  and 
sympathy  in  tolerance  and  kind  acts  from  individuals  in 
every  place  who  still  attended  the  regular  meeting-houses, 
encouraged  the  dissenters  to  assemble  in  private  houses  or 
in  the  woods,  and  then  to  provide  their  own  places  for 
assembly  and  worship. 

The  Quakers,  as  is  the  experience  of  all  other  sects, 
soon  began  to  meet  differences  of  opinion  and  practice 
arising  among  themselves,  threatening  division.  As  soon 
as  they  could,  they  held  in  peace  a  meeting  at  Salem.  John 
Perrot  had  persuaded  some  Friends  there,  that  there  was 
a  "  testimony  "  to  be  made  by  keeping  on  their  hats  even 

1  Records,  v.  60. 


490  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

in  prayer.  The  solemn  broad-brim,  which  had  been  sub 
stituted  for  the  gayly  plumed  cavalier  head-gear,  had  an 
important  place  in  the  symbolism  of  Quakerism.  John 
Burnyeat,  with  two  English  Friends,  coming  to  Salem,  by 
a  well-managed  "  meeting  "  repressed  this  heresy,  and  al 
lowed  worshippers  in  homage  to  the  Deity  to  uncover  their 
heads,  as  they  would  not  before  any  of  their  fellow-men. 
The  plainness  of  the  Quaker  garb  had  more  significance 
as  "  a  testimony  "  when  it  was  adopted  than  it  has  had  at 
any  time  since.  It  was  then  in  most  broad  rebuking  con 
trast  with  the  cavalier  and  court  array,  with  "  slashed  " 
apparel,  laces,  ribbons,  buttons,  and  elaborate  costume. 
But  William  Penn  allowed  himself  in  such  matters  more 
conformity  with  the  world.  He  had  in  him  a  fund  of 
humor  which  he  indulged.  By  ingenious  circumlocutions, 
he  avoided  in  his  correspondence  with  those  not  of  his  sect 
the  use  of  "thee"  and  athou."  He  wore  buckles  and  wigs ; 
he  used  silk  and  damask  ;  used  a  rich  coach  and  a  stately 
barge  ;  and  kept  pomp  and  ceremony,  without  a  water  diet, 
in  his  household. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  a  doubtful  charge  against 
President  Dunster  in  his  retirement  at  Scituate, —  that 
though  himself  a  sufferer  from  intolerance,  he  encouraged 
severity  against  the  Quakers.  However  it  may  have  been 
in  his  case,  the  spirit  of  dislike,  contempt,  and  scorn  ex 
hibited  toward  them,  their  tenets  and  principles,  by  Roger 
Williams  ran  to  such  excess  of  bitterness,  that  a  reader 
of  his  controversial  assaults  who  might  be  moved  to  pro 
test  is  more  likely  to  find  in  them  matter  of  merriment. 
Quakers  soon  abounded  all  around  him  in  Providence,  and 
in  their  period  of  freshest  zeal  and  spirit  of  proselytism, 
making  as  he  thought  very  shocking  parodies  of  Scripture 
and  theology,  they  gave  him  material  for  the  most  lively 
exercise  of  his  most  contentious  qualities.  He  would  not 
have  harmed  a  single  hair  of  the  head  of  any  one  of  them, 
but  his  tongue  and  pen  were  free  in  the  whole  range  of 


THE  INTRUSION   OF  THE   QUAKERS.  491 

raillery,  satire,  and  rasping  invective.  Not  satisfied  with 
conference  and  quarrel  with  such  of  the  heretics  as  fell  in 
his  way  at  his  home,  in  field,  or  by  fireside,  "  his  spirit  was 
stirred  within  him  "  on  hearing  that  George  Fox  himself, 
the  prime  heresiarch  of  the  sect,  had  arrived  on  a  mis 
sionary  journey  at  Newport,  in  1672.  He  drew  up  as  a 
challenge  "  fourteen  Propositions,"  half  of  which  he  offered 
to  defend  respectively  there  and  at  Providence  in  open  dis 
cussion  with  Fox.  With  a  keen  zest  for  the  coming  encoun 
ter,  this  vigorous  contestant  of  all  opinions  but  his  own  — 
though  these  were  not  always  the  same  —  prepared  him 
self  for  the  only  sort  of  fray  which  he  ever  enjoyed,  but 
which  was  the  delight  of  his  spirit.  Though  he  had  passed 
his  threescore  years  and  ten,  he  tells  us  that,  setting  out 
alone  to  row  himself  for  thirty  miles  in  an  open  boat  down 
Narragansett  Bay,  "  God  graciously  assisted  me  in  rowing 
all  night  with  my  old  bones,  so  that  I  got  to  Newport 
toward  midnight,  before  the  morning  appeared."  Fox  had 
not  received  his  challenge,  and  had  gone  away.  Williams 
never  could  be  convinced  that  Fox  had  not  run  off,  in 
dread  of  his  formidable  antagonist.  However,  the  pro 
posed  disputation  went  on  with  other  Quakers,  in  both 
places.  We  have  the  results,  and  the  castigation  which 
Williams  in  return  received,  in  the  two  volumes  already 
referred  to. 

With  these  encounters  of  peaceful  pugnacity  between 
two  parties  who  had  caused  such  distraction  in  Massa 
chusetts,  we  close  the  review  of  the  Martyr  Age  of  the 
Colony. 


XIII. 

THE  DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER. 

THERE  were  several  effective  causes  which  worked  to 
gether  in  bringing  about  the  annulment  of  the  Charter  of 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
the  prostration  of  the  theocratic  basis  of  government. 
The  vital  and  essential  principles  of  this  theocracy  had, 
however,  received  a  disabling  and  almost  fatal  blow,  in 
the  extension  of  the  franchise,  while  the  Charter  still 
held  to  its  threatened  life.  The  proceedings  under  quo 
warranto,  against  the  Charter,  had  been  begun  in  July, 
1683,  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  but  were  transferred 
by  the  Crown  lawyers  to  Chancery.  Thence  the  fatal 
decree  went  forth  October  23,  1684.  This  gives  us  a 
period  of  fifty-four  years,  combining  a  part  of  the  years 
of  active  life  of  men  of  two  generations.  The  Charter 
government  and  the  theocracy  were  so  far  identified,  that 
the  latter  could  not  sustain  itself  without  the  authority 
of  the  former.  But  the  theocracy  was  made  to  yield  ; 
was  humiliated  and  disabled  twenty  years  before  the 
Charter  was  annulled. 

We  are  now  to  review'  the  causes,  agencies,  and  methods 
which  brought  about  those  two  results.  We  have  to  re 
mind  ourselves  that  the  events  were  always  imminent,  and 
to  be  looked  for  as  such  by  those  having  most  reason  to 
dread  them.  It  is  rather  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the 
results  were  so  long  delayed,  held  in  arrest ;  for  the  move 
ments  which  at  last  effected  them  had  existed  and  had  been 


DOWNFALL   OP  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  493 

working  actively  from  the  first.  From  the  ineffectual  pro 
cess  of  quo  warranto  against  the  Charter  in  1635  till  the 
actual  enforcement  of  it  fifty  years  later,  busy  enemies  of 
the  theocracy  first,  and  then  of  the  Charter  itself,  had  never 
rested  in  their  efforts.  If  anything  were  necessary  to 
assure  us  of  the  seeming  sincerity  with  which  the  authori 
ties  interpreted  the  Charter  as  securing  to  them  the  rights 
which  they  claimed  and  exercised  under  it,  especially  their 
theocratic  administration,  we  should  find  it  in  marking  the 
almost  defiant  resolution,  the  tenacity  and  persistency,  even 
the  lingering  death-grasp,  with  which  they  stiffened  them 
selves  against  royal  demands,  and  the  well-nigh  baffled 
requisitions  of  royal  commissioners  for  subverting  it. 

Before  distinguishing  and  defining  the  hostile  influences 
which  aided  in  bringing  about  the  catastrophe,  we  may  start 
with  a  frank  recognition  of  the  one  general,  comprehensive, 
and  of  itself  all-sufficient  reason  for  it,  and  in  which  all  the 
other  helping  agencies  found  their  occasion  and  impulse. 
That  was  the  actual  impracticability,  as  well  as  the  civil  in 
justice  and  the  religious  intolerance  involved  in  the  scheme 
itself. 

I  said  on  an  early  page  of  this  work,  that  among  the  ideal 
and  more  or  less  visionary  schemes  for  the  planting  and  ad 
ministering  of  social  and  civil  government  in  a  community, 
it  was  natural,  and  to  a  degree  reasonable,  that  that  of  a 
theocracy,  with  the  Bible  for  its  statute-book,  should  have 
its  turn  for  trial.  The  most  opportune  time  for  it  would 
come  when  there  was  found  an  associated  company  of  men 
profoundly  moved  by  a  deep,  earnest,  and  implicit  belief,  a 
reverent  and  constraining  conviction,  that  the  Bible  was  not 
only  adapted  to  the  use  to  be  made  of  it,  but  positively  im 
posed  a  demand  that  it  should  be  so  used.  I  have  all  along 
sought,  not  excuses  nor  palliations  for,  but  simply  explana 
tions  of,  the  zeal  and  resolution,  and  the  high-handed  course 
of  those  who  had  pledged  themselves  to  try  the  experiment. 
The  two  requisite  conditions  would  be  the  full  sincerity  and 


494  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

loftiness  of  purpose  which  consecrated  it  to  them,  and  their 
ability,  by  authority,  legislation,  and  administration,  to  en 
force  theocratic  principles  of  government  upon  the  rest  of 
their  community.  With  such  charitable  indulgence  as  our 
common  humanity  compels  us  to  yield,  we  may  allow  that 
the  former  of  these  requisite  conditions,  notwithstanding 
some  interminglings  of  ill  passions,  was  substantially  sat 
isfied  till  the  Charter  was  annulled. 

It  was  the  second  of  those  conditions  which  failed.  The 
disfranchised  and  unchurched  members  of  the  community, 
subjected  to  disabilities  and  burdens  under  each  of  those 
deprivations,  were  constantly  increasing  their  proportion  in 
the  population,  and  proclaiming- their  grievances.  The  the 
ocracy  would  have  fallen  even  if  the  Charter  had  retained 
its  life.  The  colonial  government  had  abundant  occasions 
for  severe  self-questioning  as  to  its  proceedings,  for  recon 
sidering  the  fundamentals  of  the  scheme,  for  stopping  in 
its  course,  and,  taking  thought  from  the  severity  of  its  rule, 
for  asking,  Are  we  acting  wisely ;  are  we  not  on  the  wrong 
lead,  defying  right,  truth,  justice,  and  mercy  ?  Williams 
published  his  "  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution "  in  1644, 
twelve  years  before  the  inroad  of  the  Quakers.  The  vigor 
and  cogency  of  his  arguments,  with  their  quaint  directness 
of  rhetoric  in  presenting  truths  of  reason  as  sharply- pointed 
weapons  of  logical  temper,  were  sure  to  be  read,  and  as  sure 
of  impressing  liberal  views  on  receptive  minds.  But  they 
wholly  failed  of  effect  on  one  of  such  a  mind  as  Cotton, 
whose  answer  was  nerveless  and  weak,  because  fallacious. 
He  thought  he  could  wash  that  "Bloody  Tenent ; "  and  he  suc 
ceeded  in  making  it  "more  bloody,"  in  his  attempt  to  make 
it  pure  and  white  in  "  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb."  And  these 
occasions  for  reconsidering  the  foundations  of  their  scheme 
as  impracticable  and  involving  injustice^  did  not  fail  of  be 
ing  pressed  upon  the  magistrates,  alike  by  friends,  like  the 
noble-spirited  Saltonstall,  and  by  a  whole  series  of  com 
plainants  and  sufferers  at  the  English  Court.  This  im- 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  495 

practicability  and  tyrannous  injustice  of  their  scheme,  to 
which  they  themselves  should  have  opened  their  eyes,  was 
the  most  effective  agency,  working  in  each  of  the  special  in 
fluences  now  to  be  mentioned,  that  brought  about  the  depri 
vation  of  the  Charter.  For  fifty  years  they  had  held  to 
that  patent  —  and  to  their  own  construction  of  their  rights 
under  it  —  against  all  challenges,  hostilities,  and  tentative 
processes  of  the  home  government.  Their  most  artful  and 
effective  method  for  parrying  strokes  against  them  had  been 
found  in  temporizing,  with  delays  and  evasions,  pausing  on 
contingencies,  or,  as  they  expressed  it,  "  referring  their 
cause  to  God,"  and  waiting  to  see  what  way  he  would  open 
out  of  a  strait  place.  The  lengthened  interval  of  convul 
sions  and  distractions  in  the  civil  and  religious  strife  in 
England,  had  directly  served  them  by  giving  temporary 
power  at  home  to  those  .in  sympathy  with  their  principles, 
in  allowing  them  intervals  of  relief  from  interference,  and 
a  time  for  turning  fibre  into  gristle.  The  success  which 
had  so  far  been  mastered  by  them  had  nerved  them  with 
fresh  resolve,  taught  them  skill  in  fencing  off  opposition,  and 
persuaded  them  that  like  constancy  would  continue  their 
triumph.  There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that  there 
were  happy  opportunities  in  which,  if  they  had  sagaciously 
consented  to  drop  from  their  scheme  the  elements  of  it 
which  were  manifestly  impracticable,  oppressive,  and  unjust, 
they  might  substantially  have  retained  self-government.  As 
we  are  soon  to  take  notice,  the  interposition  of  royal  au 
thority  in  their  affairs  was  strictly  confined  at  first  to  a 
demand  for  the  disuse  of  their  theocratic  principles,  and, 
indeed,  so  far  from  threatening  their  Charter  left  it  in  full 
force,  even  with  a  suggestion  of  enlargement  of  privileges. 
But  this  was  without  avail.  Their  theocracy  stood  with 
them  as  the  life-blood  of  their  Charter.  If  their  cause  had 
been  less  unjust  and  unrighteous,  one  might  admire  the 
resolve  and  constancy  with  which  the  authorities,  having 
in  their  charge,  as  they  asserted,  sacred  rights,  stood  un- 


496  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

quailing  and  unyielding  to  the  last.  They  never  budged, 
nor  flew  to  covert :  they  took  back  nothing,  abated  noth 
ing,  never  apologized,  and  never  repented.  Those  of  the 
old  original  fibre  who  survived  the  loss  of  their  Charter 
were  never  reconciled,  but  lived  and  died  as  mourners. 
And,  as  we  shall  see,  their  last  desperation  to  retain  it 
was  the  song  of  the  swan  in  death. 

Sufficient  place  has  already  been  given  on  previous  pages 
to  the  assurance  with  which  the  General  Court  administered 
the  government,  under  either  the  conviction  or  the  assump 
tion  that  the  Charter  secured  to  them  the  rights  which  they 
claimed.  But  the  authorities  had  never,  so  far  as  we  are 
informed  by  the  Records,  given  any  deliberate  considera 
tion,  by  discussion,  and  the  weighing  of  diverse  opinions,  to 
the  terms  of  their  relation  to  the  home  government,  in  def 
erence,  dependence,  or  subjection  to  its  intervention  in  mat 
ters  of  policy  and  local  administration.  Nor  do  the  Records 
furnish  us  with  the  detailed  information  we  might  desire  on 
an  interesting  and  pregnant  episode  in  the  public  councils, 
for  our  fuller  knowledge  of  which  we  have  to  look  to  Win- 
throp,  who  devotes  several  pages  to  it.1  The  time  and  cir 
cumstances  both  here  and  in  England  made  the  discussion 
to  be  mentioned  of  critical  significance.  In  the  prostration 
and  abeyance  of  the  kingly  rule,  preceding  the  execution  of 
the  royal  culprit,  Parliament  was  trying  its  hand  at  colo 
nial  as  well  as  home  administration.  It  is  observable  that  in 
the  correspondence  and  intercourse  that  followed  between 
Parliamentary  commissioners  and  the  authorities  of  Mas 
sachusetts  there  are  exhibited  sympathetic  complacencies, 
and  complimentary  exchanges  of  regard,  as  between  those 
who  are  alike  rather  dubious  of  their  grounds  and  position. 
Equally  observable  it  is  that  our  authorities  were  inclined  by 
some  emboldenment  of  spirit  to  treat  the  Parliament  with 
somewhat  more  of  a  nonchalant  familiarity  than  they  did 
the  King.  Several  complications  and  annoyances  combined 

i  Vol.  ii.  pp.  278-284. 


DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  497 

to  vex  our  authorities  on  this  special  occasion.  Complaints 
and  grievances  had  been  brought  before  Parliament  against 
Massachusetts  by  Gorton  and  others  of  Rhode  Island,  as 
well  as  by  Dr.  Child  and  his  fellow-petitioners,  as  already 
mentioned,  in  the  matter  which  had  roused  the  ire  of  our 
Court.  At  its  session  in  November,  1646,  an  order  was  read 
which  had  been  received  from  the  Commissioners  for  For 
eign  Plantations,  under  date  of  Westminster,  May  15, 1646, 
relating  to  the  petitioners  about  the  Narragansett.  The 
Commissioners  courteously  affirm  that  their  action  does  not 
assume  the  truth  of  the  charges  brought  against  Massachu 
setts,  "  we  knowing  well  how  much  God  hath  honored  your 
government,  and  believing  that  your  spirits  and  affairs  are 
acted  by  principles  of  justice,  prudence,  and  zeal  to  God," 
etc.  Several  critical  questions  were  opened  in  this  order 
for  the  astute  members  of  the  Court,  keenly  watchful  about 
every  token  of  a  trespass  on  their  liberties  and  self-suffi 
ciency,  without  allowing  appeals  from  their  decisions.  So 
"  such  of  the  elders  as  could  be  had  were  sent  for,  to  have 
their  advice  in  the  matter." 

The  full  subject  "  propounded  to  consideration  was  in 
what  relation  we  stood  to  the  state  of  England ;  whether 
our  government  was  founded  upon  our  charter,  or  not ;  if 
so,  then  what  subjection  we  owed  to  that  state."  The  mag 
istrates  first  gave  their  minds,  that  the  elders  might  be 
helped  in  giving  their  advice.  It  being  agreed  that  the  Char 
ter  was  the  foundation  of  the  government,  some  thought 
that  we  were  so  subordinate  to  the  Parliament  that  it  might 
countermand  our  orders  and  judgments,  and  therefore  that 
we  should  petition  for  an  enlargement  of  power.  Others 
thought  that  though,  as  we  had  before  professed,  we  owed 
allegiance  and  subjection,  yet  the  charter  gave  us  "  absolute 
power  of  government ;  for  thereby  we  have  power  to  make 
laws,  to  erect  all  sorts  of  magistracy,  to  correct,  punish, 
pardon,  govern,  and  rule  the  people  absolutely,"  etc.,  —  all 
implying  a  self-sufficiency  not  needing  the  help  of  any  supe- 

32 


498  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

rior  power  to  complete  the  government.  As  to  petitioning 
for  "  enlargement,"  grave  objections  were  offered,  especially 
that  it  would  peril  the  present  Charter.  With  the  case  thus 
presented,  the  elders,  after  deliberation,  rendered  their  ad 
vice.  A  scruple  had  arisen  as  to  acknowledging  the  title 
of  the  Commissioners.  But  this  was  shrewdly  disposed  of 
by  the  reminder  that  in  any  answer  given  to  them,  "  if 
their  stile  were  not  observed,  it  was  doubted  they  would  not 
receive  it."  The  elders  admitted  dependence  upon  and  due 
allegiance  and  fidelity  to  England,  as  having  derived  our 
Charter  from  her,  and  being  dependent  upon  her  "  for  pro 
tection  and  the  immunities  of  Englishmen ; "  that  our  powers 
of  government  are  so  full  that  there  should  be  no  appeal 
from,  or  interruption  of,  our  proceedings ;  that  our  agents 
and  defenders  abroad  must  do  the  best  they  can  in  justify 
ing  our  proceedings  against  complainants,  "  but  if  the  Par 
liament  should  be  less  inclinable  to  us,  we  must  wait  upon 
providence  for  the  preservation  of  our  just  liberties."  We 
may  give  to  the  Commissioners  "  such  titles  as  the  Parlia 
ment  hath  given  them,  without  subjecting  to  them  in  point 
of  our  government."  Finally,  the  elders,  as  professionally 
bound,  advise  to  the  churches  "  a  solemn  seeking  of  the 
Lord  for  the  upholding  of  our  state  and  disappointment  of 
our  adversaries."  The  Court  acted  substantially  upon  this 
advice.  It  was  proposed  that  Winthrop  should  go  to  Eng 
land  as  agent.  He  would  have  consented,  though  reluc 
tantly,  but  was  happily  relieved  by  a  substitute,  through 
whom  a  most  elaborate  reply  and  justification  was  sent  to 
the  Commissioners,  with  specific  answers  to  the  complaints 
of  Child  and  the  other  petitioners,  who,  meanwhile,  were 
sternly  dealt  with  here  by  heavy  fines. 

This  mention  of  what  was  in  fact  an  embassy  from  the 
Court  to  England  prompts  some  further  remark  upon  the 
matter  here. 

Besides  the  temporizing  shifts  and  devices  of  the  Court, 
its  politic  delays  and  mystifying  evasions,  it  had  naturally 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  499 

had  recourse  to  the  sending  of  agents  to  defend  it  before 
King  and  Council,  to  subvert  inimical  plots  and  enemies, 
and  to  win  friends  to  its  interests.  From  the  earliest  years 
of  the  Colony  down  to  the  opening  of  the  War  of  the  Revo 
lution,  Massachusetts  was  represented  by  a  succession  of 
such  agents.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  though  it  was  on  a 
smaller  scale,  no  intricacies,  ingenuities,  and  arts  of  diplo 
macy  between  sovereign  nations  ever  drew  more  heavily 
upon  the  wits  and  resources  of  ambassadors,  than  in  the 
cases  of  these  Massachusetts  emissaries.  There  is  this  dis 
tinction,  however.  The  persons  and  the  personal  rights  of 
real  ambassadors  are  sacredly  secure.  But  the  Massachu 
setts  agents,  not  being  assured  of  official  recognition,  might 
risk  their  own  liberty,  be  held  as  hostages,  or  even  as  vic 
tims.  There  never  was  any  strong  craving  here  for  these 
quasi-ambassadorial  functions,  —  at  least  among  such  as  the 
Court  would  regard  as  most  competent  and  fitting  for  them, 
though  enough  would  have  been  ready  to  assume  them.  If 
space  permitted,  a  lengthened,  and  indeed  a  lively  review 
might  be  spread  forth  here,  from  the  Records,  of  the  diplo 
matic  history  of  the  Court  of  the  Bay  Colony.  Measuring 
exactly  by  the  emergency  and  the  stringency  of  each  occa 
sion,  there  was  an  increased  difficulty  to  find  the  qualified 
person,  and  to  win  his  consent  to  the  call.  And  it  may  be 
added,  the  more  faithful  the  agent,  and  the  more  sagacious 
and  prudent  he  was  in  adapting  himself  to  the  hard  exi 
gencies  of  his  mission,  accepting  the  best  terms  he  could  se 
cure,  the  more  ungrateful  and  resentful  were  his  reception 
and  his  treatment  on  his  return.  No  allowance  was  made 
for  the  difference  in  the  atmosphere  and  surroundings  of  the 
Puritan  and  the  English  Courts.  The  Court  would  have 
long  debates,  with  the  advice  of  elders,  on  each  occasion  for 
sending  an  agent,  and  longer  ones  on  his  instructions.  The 
most  emphatic  of  these  were,  never  to  commit  the  Court  be 
yond  the  letter  of  them,  to  hedge  and  parry  within  them, 
and  when  hard  pressed,  to  assert  the  limitations  upon  him 


500  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

and  to  reserve  the  privilege  of  communicating  with  his 
principals.  Norton  and  Bradstreet  had  run  a  serious  risk 
of  being  challenged  and  proceeded  against  in  England  by 
relatives  of  the  executed  Quakers.  In  the  last  attempts  to 
avert  the  blow  against  the  Charter,  it  was  only  with  ex 
treme  effort,  and  after  protracted  delay,  and  then  with  em 
barrassment  in  providing  supplies,  that  competent  agents 
were  secured.  What  there  was  for  them  to  do  we  can  bet 
ter  appreciate  by  returning  now  to  note  the  reasons  and 
agencies  which  imperilled  the  Charter.  Were  it  of  suffi 
cient  importance,  one  might  expand  at  length,  beyond  the 
brief  mention  of  them,  which  is  all  that  is  necessary,  three 
special  causes,  all  included  in  what  we  have  already  recog 
nized  in  the  impracticability  of  the  theocratic  experiment, 
which  effected  its  discomfiture.  These  were — dissension,  dis 
content,  alienation,  and  sharp  variances  arising  among  those 
who  formed  the  government  in  State  and  Church,  from  its 
own  ill-working ;  active  assaults  upon  it  from  outsiders  and 
sufferers ;  and  political  changes  in  the  mother  country. 

1.  In  following  out  the  administration  under  the  charter 
with  that  construction  of  it  which  the  authorities  maintained 
as  of  right,  we  have  had  constant  occasion  to  note  the  fer 
ment  which  was  working  within.  An  increasing  severity 
of  rule  by  the  covenanted  church  members,  over  an  ever- 
enlarging  proportion  of  the  disfranchised,  unchurched,  un- 
baptized,  and  those  denied  the  religious  ministrations  which 
they  preferred,  while  they  were  compelled  to  support  such 
as  they  disapproved,  was  the  occasion  of  internal  discord. 
It  was  not  only  as  it  was  intended  to  be,  the  rule  of  saints 
over  sinners,  but  it  was  the  oppression  by  the  few,  with  self- 
assumed  privileges,  over  the  liberties  and  rights  of  all.  In 
every  case  of  dissension,  followed  by  infliction  of  discipline, 
the  authorities  intensified  the  ill-feelings  against  themselves 
and  called  out  sympathy  for  their  victims.  In  their  pro 
ceedings  against  Roger  Williams  and  the  Antinomians  they 
had  promoted  a  troublesome  colony  on  their  borders,  al- 


DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  501 

ways  afterward  a  source  of  annoyance  to  them.  They  had 
turned  some  of  those  in  full  fellowship  with  them  into  con 
verts  for  the  Baptists  and  Quakers.  When  some  of  the 
most  excellent  and  honored  of  those  in  church  covenant 
with  them  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Quakers,  the  Court 
could  not  long  venture  to  treat  them  as  it  had  dealt  with 
the  strolling  "  vagabonds  "  coming  from  abroad.  The  mag 
istrates  found  their  severe  measures  constantly  thwarted. 
Differences  arose  between  them  and  the  deputies,  and  the 
arbitration  of  the  elders  was  not  always  effective. 

2.  These  dissensions  among  themselves  were  actively  pro 
moted  by  the  agents  in  the  second  of  the  causes  which  ac 
complished  the  vacating  of  the  Charter.     Beginning  with 
the  Browns,  Gardiner,  and  Morton,  and  closing  with  the 
Quakers,  all  who  had  grievances  against  the  Court  brought 
them  before  the  authorities  in  England,  and  together  they 
formed  a  formidable  body  of  bitter  and  persistent  enemies. 
The  mother  country  had  all  the  means  of  knowing  with  full 
warning  what  was  being  done  on  this  side  by  the  intracta 
ble  and  truculent  founders  pf  what  they  called  a  "  state," 
or  a  "  commonwealth,"  which  issued  processes  in  its  own 
name  and  not  in  that  of  the  King ;  which  had  had  the  ef 
frontery  to  trespass  on  the  royal  prerogative  by  coining 
money  in  its  own  mint ;   by  disregarding  the  navigation 
laws  of  the  realm,  and  by  denying  all  appeals  from  its  very 
peculiar  laws  to  England.     Besides  the  numerous  body  of 
complainants  for  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered  from  the 
government  of  the  colony,  there  were  others,  like  Gorges 
and  Mason,  who,  as  patentees  of  territory,  maintained  a 
vigorous  hostility  not  only  against  the  grasping  measures 
of  Massachusetts  in  extending  its  own  bounds,  but  also 
against  the  validity  of  its  Charter. 

3.  To  these  two  direct  agencies  in  fomenting  mischief 
for  Massachusetts  must  be  added  a  third  one,  in  the  really 
awakened  attention  of  English  statesmen  given  to  the  Col 
ony,  when  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  seemed  to  present 


502  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

occasion  and  opportunity  for  settling  some  of  the  confusion 
which  had  been  working  in  distracted  times.  The  King's 
letter  of  June  28, 1662,  received  by  the  returning  agents 
Bradstreet  and  Norton,  and  acknowledged  by  the  Court, 
Oct.  8,  1662,  was  not  put  upon  record  till  the  session  of 
May,  1665.1  I  have  quoted  from  that  letter  only  the  pas 
sage  in  which  the  King  authorized  the  Court  to  pass  "  a 
sharpe  law  against  the  Quakers,  as  he  had  himself  done." 
The  letter  contained  other  grave  matters,  now  to  be  noticed. 
On  the  whole,  it  is  in  its  tenor  most  kind  and  conciliatory, 
accepting  the  professions  of  loyalty  of  the  anxious  but  not 
frightened  magistrates  for  more  than  they  were  worth. 
The  King  writes  of  his  "  good  subjects," - 

"  wee  receive  them  into  our  gracious  protection,  and  will  cherish 
them  with  our  best  encouragement,  and  wee  will  preserve  and  doe 
hereby  confirme  the  patent  and  charter  heretofore  granted  unto 
them  by  our  royall  father,  of  blessed  memory,  — and  that  wee  will 
be  ready  to  renew  the  same  charter  to  them,  under  our  great  scale 
of  England,  whensoever  they  shall  desire  it." 

Referring  to  "  the  licence  of  these  late  ill  times  in  Eng 
land,"  as  to  an  extent  relieving  the  mismanagement  in  the 
Colony,  the  King  grants  his  full  pardon  for  all  crimes  and 
offences  committed  there  against  himself,  excepting  only 
those  attainted  of  high  treason  who  may  have  transplanted 
themselves,  who  must  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  jus 
tice.  His  allusion  is  to  the  regicides  Whalley  and  Goffe, 
who  were  known  to  be  in  New  England,  but  who  were 
secreted,  befriended,  and  never  betrayed.  His  Majesty 
requires  that  all  laws  or  ordinances  contrary  or  derogatory 
to  his  authority  and  government  be  annulled,  that  the  admin 
istration  of  justice  be  according  to  the  Charter  and  in  his 
name,  and  that  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him  be  taken. 
Then  comes  the  graver  matter.  The  King  —  through  the 
pen  of  his  adviser  —  taking  "  liberty  of  conscience  "  to  be 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  164. 


DOWNFALL  OP  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  503 

something  quite  different  from  what  it  was  to  those  whom 
he  was  addressing,  adds :  — 

"  And  since  the  principall  end  and  foundation  of  that  charter 
was  and  is  the  freedome  and  liberty  of  conscience,  wee  do  hereby 
charge  and  require  that  that  freedome  and  liberty  be  duely  ad 
mitted  and  allowed,  so  that  such  as  desire  to  use  the  Booke  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  performe  their  devotions  in  that  manner  as 
is  established  here,  be  not  debarred  the  excercise  thereof,  or  urider- 
goe  any  prejudice  or  disadvantage  thereby,  they  using  their  liberty 
without  disturbance  to  others,  and  that  all  persons  of  good  and 
honest  lives  and  conversations  be  admitted  to  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  according  to  the  Booke  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  their  children  to  baptisme.  [Then  follows  the  allowance  of 
"  a  strict  law  "  against  the  Quakers,  and  permission  to  reduce  the 
Charter  number  of  the  Assistants  to  not  more  than  eighteen  nor  less 
than  ten.]  Wee  assuring  ourself,  and  obleiging  and  commanding 
all  persons  concerned,  that,  in  the  election  of  the  Governor  or 
Assistants  there  be  only  consideration  had  of  the  wisdome,  virtue, 
and  integrity  of  the  persons  to  be  chosen,  and  not  of  any  affection 
with  refference  to  their  opinions  and  outward  professions ;  and  that 
all  the  freeholders  of  competent  estates,  not  vitious  in  conversa 
tion,  and  orthodoxe  in  religion  (though  of  different  persuasions 
concerning  church  government)  may  have  their  votes  in  the  elec 
tion  of  all  officers,  both  civill  and  military."  l 

Though,  as  before  said,  this  letter  of  the  King  was  not 
entered  on  the  Records  till  two  and  a  half  years  after  its 
reception  by  the  Court  in  October,  1662,  the  Court  then 
ordered  the  "publication  "  of  it,  —  whatever  that  might  have 
meant,  —  and  at  once  provided,  in  compliance  with  one  of 
its  demands,  that  all  processes  should  henceforward  issue 
in  his  Majesty's  name.  But  the  graver  matters  were  dealt 
with  as  follows  :  — 

"And  forasmuch  as  the  said  letter  hath  influence  upon  the 
churches  as  well  as  the  civil  state,  itt  is  further  ordered,  that  all 
manner  of  actings  in  relation  thereunto  be  suspended  untill  the 
1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  165. 


504  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

next  General  Court ;  so  that  all  persons  concerned  may  have  time 
and  opportunity  to  consider  of  what  is  necessary  to  be  doune  in 
order  to  his  majesty's  pleasure  therein." ] 

« 

The  Court  appointed  the  first  Wednesday  of  the  Novem 
ber  coming,  for  Thanksgiving  for  mercies  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  also  the  first  Wednesday  of  December  for  a 
day  of  Humiliation  on  account  of  the  "  prevailing  power 
of  Antichrist  abroad,  together  with  some  public  rebukes 
of  God  among  ourselves." 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Court  in  May,  1663,  after 
"  long  and  serious  debate  in  refference  to  his  majesty's 
letter,"  a  committee  of  thirteen,  magistrates,  deputies,  and 
elders,  was  charged  to  examine  the  several  parts  of  it  and 
to  report  at  the  next  Court.  Evidently  there  was  no  inten 
tion  to  hurry  matters,  for  temporizing  had  often  done  good 
service.  The  crucial  point  concerned  "  extending  the  lib 
erty  of  certeine  of  the  inhabitants  in  point  of  elections  ; " 
so  elders,  freemen,  "  and  other  inhabitants  "  were  invited 
to  give  the  Court,  or  the  committee,  "  their  owne  under 
standings  in  writing."  We  may  well  conceive  that  the 
public  in  Church  and  State,  and  outside  of  both,  had  lively 
times  and  themes  in  discussion. 

In  the  Records  of  the  Court  in  May,  1664,  we  find  this 
very  significant  entry,  suggestive  of  the  same  human  de 
vice  in  another  range  of  interests,  of  the  sagacity  of  a 
child  who  hides  a  toy  which  he  fears  may  be  taken  from 
him :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  it  is  of  great  concernment  to  this  commonwealth 
to  keepe  safe  and  secret  our  pattent,  it  is  ordered  the  patent,  and 
duplicate  belonging  to  the  country,  be  forthwith  brought  into  the 
Court,  and  that  there  be  two  or  three  persons  appointed  by  each 
house  to  keepe  safe  and  secret  the  said  patent  and  duplicate,  in 
two  distinct  places,  as  to  the  said  committees  shall  seem  most 
expedient." 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  58. 


DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  505 

Four  persons,  magistrates  and  deputies,  were  appointed, 
who  received  "  the  grand  patent  from  the  secretary,  to  dis 
pose  thereof  as  maybe  most  safe  for  the  country."  l 

This  stratagem  shows  how  dear  and  precious  the  hidden 
parchment  was  to  the  Court ;  but  the  trick  was  of  no  avail 
against  a  process  in  Chancery.  Recourse  was  had  to  this 
concealment  because  of  a  rumor  of  the  coming  of  some 
royal  commissioners  charged  to  examine  complaints,  who, 
it  was  feared,  might  demand  the  surrender  of  the  Charter. 
The  committee  on  the  King's  letter  had  not  reported  when 
these  Commissioners  arrived  in  July,  1664,  bringing  another 
royal  epistle,  to  institute  their  searching  inquisition  into 
affairs,  and  to  carry  on  a  contest  with  the  Court,  in  which 
the  latter,  with  tough,  adroit,  and  persistent  courage  and 
skill,  parried  the  attacks  of  the  former  with  a  degree  of 
success.  The  documents  containing  the  controversy  and 
wrangling  fill  nearly  six-score  pages  on  the  Records.2 

The  Court,  Aug.  3,  1664,  modified  the  law  restricting 
the  franchise  to  church  members,  by  enacting,  — 

"  That  from  henceforth  all  Englishmen  presenting  a  cirtifficat, 
under  the  hands  of  the  ministers  or  minister  of  the  place  where 
they  dwell,  that  they  are  orthodox  in  religion,  and  not  vitious  in 
theire  lives,  and  also  a  certifficat,  under  the  hands  of  the  selectmen, 
that  they  are  freeholders  [ratable  for  ten  shillings],  or  that  they 
are  in  full  communion  with  some  church  amongst  us,  it  shall  be  in 
the  liberty  of  every  such  person,  being  twenty-four  years  of  age, 
householders  and  settled  inhabitants  of  this  jurisdiction,  to  present 
themselves  for  admittance  to  the  freedom  of  this  commonwealth, 
and  put  to  vote  in  the  Generall  Court  for  acceptance  to  the  free- 
dome  of  the  body  polliticke  by  the  sufferage  of  the  major  parte, 
according  to  the  rules  of  our  pattent."  3 

The  reader  may  at  his  choice  mark  either  the  stubborn 
ness  or  the  ingenuity  of  this  seeming  concession  to  the 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  102.  The  parchment  is  now  in  the  Secretary's 
office  in  the  State  House. 

a  Ibid.,  pp.  157-273.  8  Ibid.,  p.  118. 


506  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

requisition  of  the  King  while  still  conserving  in  its  terms 
the  exclusiveness  of  the  franchise.  In  his  letter  he  had 
asked  the  extension  of  the  franchise  only  to  persons  "  or 
thodox  in  religion,"  though  his  standard  of  "  orthodoxy  " 
was  quite  different  from  that  of  the  Court.  The  Court 
had  evidently  persuaded  itself  that  the  relations  of  Con 
formists  and  Dissenters  in  England  were  directly  inverted 
here.  The  King  required  for  those  who  dissented  from 
the  established  order  here,  rights  and  privileges  which  in 
England  were  forbidden  to  Dissenters  there,  who  were 
burdened  by  many  disabilities  and  exactions.  An  ex 
ample  of  securing  the  franchise  by  the  new  enactment  is 
as  follows :  — 

At  the  Court,  Oct.  11,  1665.  "On  cirtifficat  from  the  select 
men  of  Springfield,  and  Mr.  Pelatiah  Glover,  minister  there,  that 
Thomas  Merrick,  a  setled  inhabitant  there,  is,  according  to  law, 
rateable,  orthodox  in  religion,  of  pious  and  laudable  conversation, 
the  Court  allowes  and  approoves  of  him  to  be  a  freeman  of  this 
jurisdiction."  * 

It  may  have  been,  though  not  avowed,  in  the  astute 
minds  of  some  of  the  magistrates  here,  in  drawing  the  line 
of  privilege  between  church  members  of  their  own  stand 
ing  order  and  outsiders,  or  "  dissenters,"  to  give  a  signifi 
cant  hint  to  their  foreign  dictators  about  the  beam  in  their 
own  eyes,  in  the  disabilities  imposed  upon  Nonconformists. 
It  is,  however,  an  interesting  coincidence  that  Episcopa 
lians  did  not  secure  their  rights  in  Massachusetts  till  the 
grievous  penalties  for  Dissenters  had  been  removed  in  Eng 
land.  The  strength  of  the  Puritan  principles  consisted  in 
the  singleness,  definiteness,  and,  as  they  believed,  the  abso 
lute  rightfulness  and  practical  value  of  the  one  rule  by 
which  the  standard  for  the  reforming  process  should  be 
chosen  and  applied.  They  could  not  accept  any  purely 
arbitrary  methods  or  limits,  any  devices,  adaptations,  sclec- 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  285. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  507 

tions,  or  preferences,  by  which  the  reconstruction  and  puri 
fication  of  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  system  under  which 
they  were  to  live  was  to  be  effected.  That  was  a  bold  and 
logical,  though  a  wholly  disloyal  position  on  which  the 
Massachusetts  authorities  planted  themselves  at  this  time. 
The  King  and  his  agents  thought  they  were  uttering  a 
simple  axiom  in  affirming  that  the  religion  and  mode  of 
worship  established  in  the  realm  should  have  at  least  a 
respectful  recognition  in  a  colony  of  that  realm.  But  two 
reasons  of  sufficient  weight  with  our  magistrates  invali 
dated  that  claim.  The  first  was  that,  standing  by  their 
original  Nonconformist  principles,  they  regarded  the  insti 
tution  and  the  ritual  of  the  English  Church  as  nnscriptural, 
and  of  human  invention.  The  second  reason  for  their 
alleged  contumacy  was  that  their  Charter  committed  to 
them  certain  powers  and  prerogatives  among  which  was 
the  right,  under  their  remote  exigencies  and  circumstances, 
to  do  for  themselves,  through  their  Court,  very  much  what 
the  English  Parliament  did  for  the  people  of  the  realm,  in 
all  that  concerned  the  administration  of  religion  and  a 
form  of  worship.  Looking  back  to  the  long  arid  sharp 
conflict  which  their  Puritan  predecessors  had  carried  on, 
in  endeavoring  that  the  work  of  reformation  should  be 
thorough  and  Scriptural,  they  had  found  their  side  worsted 
simply  by  the  engagement  of  the  civil  preference  and 
authority  in  favor  of  conformity.  The  prelates,  divines, 
and  communicants  of  the  English  Church  at  that  time, 
as  has  been  the  case  ever  since,  having  no  advantage 
or  superiority  in  scholarship,  piety,  capacity,  fidelity,  or 
efficiency  in  the  ministry,  over  the  Nonconformists,  had 
simply  just  that  favoritism  which  privilege  and  patronage 
conferred  by  Parliament  secured  to  them,  —  all  as  of  a 
worldly  premium.  Through  nearly  three  centuries  the 
Dissenters  in  England,  nearly  dividing  its  population,  sup 
porting  at  their  own  charges  their  educational  institutions, 
their  chapels  and  charities,  while  sharing  the  cost  of  the 


508  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

Establishment  besides,  have  naturally  protested  against 
this  State  favoritism  of  conformity.  This  ancient  and 
grievous  oppression  and  injustice  seems  now  to  be  in  a 
way  of  redress.  Something  like  it  was  attempted  in  the 
shape  of  an  English  Church  establishment  in  Virginia  and 
New  York.  The  Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  having  the 
wit  to  devise  it  and  the  resolution  to  enforce  it,  chose  to 
have  an  establishment  of  their  own,  in  which  their  char 
tered  Court  stood  for  the  English  Parliament  at  home. 

The  five  New  England  Colonies,  including  Massachusetts, 
had  addressed  Charles  II.,  asking  security  in  their  privi 
leges,  and  in  four  of  these  letters  complaints  had  been 
made  of  the  Bay  Colony.  The  letter  of  the  King  brought 
here  by  the  commissioners  was  the  third  of  his  epistles  to 
our  magistrates.  His  attention  had  been  at  once  drawn, 
on  his  restoration,  to  the  spirit  of  restlessness,  insubordi 
nation,  and,  indeed,  of  independence,  manifested  here  ;  and 
his  Chancellor,  Clarendon,  with  his  Council,  —  as  the  method 
arid  tenor  of  his  third  letter  and  of  his  instructions  to  his 
commissioners  abundantly  prove,  —  had  given  earnest  and 
keen  inquisition  into  the  actual  state  of  affairs  in  the  Colo 
nies,  and  especially  in  Massachusetts.  The  royal  documents 
show  a  wonderful  fulness  and  accuracy  of  information 
about  the  aims  and  disposition  of  leading  men,  the  matters 
of  party  variance,  the  occasions  of  grievances,  the  weak 
points  in  administration,  and  the  methods  of  self-defence 
which  would  be  availed  of. 

Considering  the  real  attitude  and  behavior  of  the  Massa 
chusetts,  and  the  full  knowledge  of  particulars  possessed  by 
Clarendon  and  the  Council,  one  who  now  reads  their  com 
munications  in  the  name  of  the  King,  notes  with  a  degree 
of  surprise  and  admiration  their  dignity,  mildness,  and 
quiet  courtesy  of  tone,  their  gentleness,  and  even  forbear 
ance  of  censure,  and  their  absolute  freedom  from  all  threat- 
enings,  though  a  reserve  of  what  may  follow  if  this  method 
fails  is  mildlv  intimated.  The  method  of  communication 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  509 

was  avowedly  chosen,  as  a  way  of  "  insinuation "  of  the 
King's  feelings  and  intentions,  rather  than  one  of  provo 
cation.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  reader  notes  with 
equal  appreciation  and  admiration  the  caution,  the  acumen, 
the  perfect  self-possession,  the  adroitness,  and  the  stiffness 
of  resolve  shown  in  the  documents  which  went  forth  from 
the  Court.  Sagacious  minds  and  sturdy  spirits,  employing 
an  able  pen,  were  put  to  its  service.  The  disputations  be 
tween  the  commissioners  and  the  Court  were  tediously 
protracted,  and  shifted  rapidly  from  one  subject  to  an 
other,  as  the  former  began  with  surface-work  and  shrewdly 
advanced  step  by  step  to  the  serious  issues.  The  Court 
well  understood  the  strategy,  and  was  never  once  beguiled 
or  put  off  its  guard.  As  the  result  proved,  they  could 
not  prevent  the  commissioners  from  finding  sufficient  and 
grievous  matter  for  their  messages  of  discomfiture  to  the 
King ;  but  in  not  a  single  point  of  graver  import  did  the 
commissioners  succeed  in  circumventing  or  constraining 
the  action  of  the  Court.  The  Charter  was  yet  to  have  a 
score  more  of  years  of  vitality  for  itself,  and  for  the  adoles 
cence  of  the  commonwealth. 

We  may  trace  with  brevity  the  course  of  this  lively  con 
test.  The  King  in  each  of  his  letters,  especially  in  that 
brought  by  the  commissioners,  had  in  the  kindest  terms 
and  with  the  most  positive  assurances  referred  to  the  Col 
ony  Charter  given  by  his  father,  "  of  blessed  memory,"  as 
not  only  to  be  sacredly  ratified  and  continued  by  him,  but 
had  even  offered  to  enlarge  the  privileges  which  it  conferred. 
His  declarations,  and  the  emphasis  of  them,  furnished  a 
whole  armory  of  defence  and  of  offence  to  the  Court,  giving 
it  all  it  wanted,  even  the  means  of  challenging,  of  protest 
ing,  and  of  resisting  any  measures  of  interference  which 
came  from  the  same  royal  source  through  his  commis 
sioners.  So  long  as  the  Company  could  maintain  their 
Charter,  which  they  well  understood  how  to  use  to  cover 
all  that  they  claimed  under  it,  they  were  tsafe. 


510  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

As  soon  as  the  Court  had  knowledge  of  the  expected 
arrival  of  the  commissioners,  it  made  provision  for  their 
courteous  reception,  appointing  two  honored  gentlemen 
to  render  them  "  such  civilities  as  the  people  and  place 
were  capable  of."  The  commission  consisted  of  four 
members,  —  Col.  Richard  Nicolls,  a  sort  of  chief  or  chair 
man,  Sir  Robert  Carr,  and  George  Cartwright  and  Samuel 
Maverick,  Esqs.  The  last  named,  on  the  arrival  of  Win- 
throp's  Company ,  had  been  found  seated  on  Winnisim- 
mett.  He  was  an  Episcopalian,  but  was  made  a  free 
man  in  October,  1632,  and  had  been  a  constant  trouble 
and  vexation  to  the  Court,  the  records  of  which  describe 
him  on  his  coming  as  a  royal  commissioner,  as  "  our 
known  and  professed  enemy."  The  two  frigates  which 
brought  these  gentlemen  were  the  first  vessels  of  the  royal 
navy  to  appear  in  the  waters  of  our  Bay.  Nicolls  and 
Cartwright  arrived  at  the  opening  of  the  Puritan  Sabbath, 
Saturday  evening,  July  23,  1664.  It  may  be  mentioned 
here  that  Endicott,  then  Governor,  died  on  the  15th  of  the 
following  March.  His  repute  with  the  English  Council 
had  made  him  so  obnoxious  that  the  commissioners  were 
instructed  to  seek  his  displacement  from  office.  At  their 
request  Endicott  ordered  a  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Mag 
istrates  on  July  26,  before  which  the  King's  letter  of  April 
23  and  the  commission  of  his  emissaries  were  read.  All 
through  the  course  of  the  hearings  and  controversies  which 
followed,  as  at  the  beginning  of  them,  the  commissioners 
asked  that  the  whole  General  Court  might  be  convened 
for  business  with  them.  This  the  Council  always  refused, 
stating  that  the  Charter  fixed  the  dates  on  which  that  body 
should  be  convened,  while  at  the  same  time  insisting  that 
its  legal  presence  and  authority  were  necessary  to  enter 
tain  such  business  as  the  commissioners  had  to  bring  be 
fore  it.  Besides  their  commission,  these  gentlemen  had 
two  sets  of  "  instructions,"  concerning  one  set  of  which 
they  were  to  exercise  their  discretion  as  to  communicating 


DOWNFALL  OP   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  511 

them.  The  Council  wished  to  know  the  whole  of  them, 
but  could  draw  them  out  only  by  piecemeal.  Various  mat 
ters  were  covered  by  these  instructions,  as  relating  to  the 
other  Colonies,  questions  disputed  about  boundaries,  war 
with  the  Dutch  of  Manhattan,  etc.,  compelling  the  com 
missioners  to  absent  themselves  at  intervals,  making  re 
turn  visits  to  Boston.  I  shall  remark  almost  exclusively 
upon  their  business  with  the  internal  affairs  of  this  Colony. 
The  royal  letter  was  kindly  and  conciliatory  in  its  opening. 
It  even  complimented  Massachusetts  as  having  given  u  a 
good  example  of  industry  and  sobriety  "  to  the  other  Col 
onies,  and  as  having  prospered  above  them.  The  King 
now  intends  no  harm  or  injury  to  the  Colony,  but  fully 
confirms  to  them  the  Charter  from  his  father,  and  is  ready 
to  grant  further  favor.  He  wishes  to  discountenance  all 
the  jealousies  and  calumnies  of  which  he  has  heard.  The 
commissioners  are  to  confer  on  the  King's  letter  of  June 
28,  1662,  sent  by  Bradstreet  and  Norton,  and  the  Court's 
reply  to  it,  of  November  25,  "  which  did  not  answer  our 
expectations,  nor  the  professions  made  by  your  messin- 
gers ; "  and  he  requires  that  his  commissioners  be  treated 
with  respect.  The  Council,  taking  the  royal  letter  into 
consideration,  marked  the  compliance  they  had  already 
made  in  extending  the  franchise,  but  found  in  its  other 
contents  peril  to  their  Charter  rights. 

The  Court,  on  assembling,  agrees  to  reply  in  an  Address 
to  the  King.  This  document  shows  in  its  composition  and 
tenor  that  it  had  engaged  the  advice,  ingenuity,  and  acute- 
ness  alike  of  magistratical  and  clerical  co-laborers.  Its 
tone  opens  plaintively  and  pleadingly,  as  from  a  body  of 
suppliants  poor,  and  remote  from  the  fount  of  mercy.  The 
"first  undertakers"  of  the  plantation,  relying  upon  the 
royal  covenant  in  their  Charter,  had  borne  the  cost  and 
charges  of  their  hazardous  enterprise.  For  more  than 
thirty  years  they  had  struggled  with  but  moderate  thrift. 
Quoting  the  King's  previous  promises  about  their  Charter 


512  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

rights,  they  murmur  that  he  should  now  send  "  four  stran 
gers,"  who,  keeping  back  some  of  their  instructions,  are 
ominously  intermeddling  with  the  affairs  of  the  Colony. 
The  commissioners  manifest  such  a  spirit  as  to  lead  the 
Court  to  dread  a  subversion  of  all  their  solemnly  cove 
nanted  rights,  with  such  results  of  confusion  and  disorder 
as  may  compel  the  colonists  to  seek  out  a  refuge  in  a  new 
dwelling-place,  or  to  faint  under  discouragements.  As  to 
the  complaints  that  have  been  made  against  them  to  the 
King,  the  Address  boldly  asserts :  "  The  body  of  this  people 
are  unanimously  satisfied  with  the  present  government, 
and  abhorrent  from  change ;  but  few  among  us  are  male- 
content,  and  fewer  that  have  cause  to  be  so."  The  Court 
perhaps  assumed  for  their  monarch  a  familiarity  like  their 
own  with  Scripture,  when  reminding  him,  "  It  was  Job's 
excellency  when  he  sate  as  king  among  his  people,  that  he 
was  a  father  to  the  poore."  1 

Three  of  the  commissioners  having  been  absent  on  a 
visit  to  the  Dutch,  returning  to  Boston,  Feb.  15,  166|, 
and  meeting  with  some  of  the  magistrates,  asked  that  a 
map  of  the  bounds  of  the  Colony  be  provided  for  them.  In 
this  request  they  were  gratified.  They  announced  their 
wish  that  on  their  return  from  a  short  visit  to  Plymouth,  a 
mass-meeting  of  all  the  inhabitants  might  be  summoned  to 
Boston  on  the  day  of  the  election.  This  request  of  the 
commissioners  was  evidently  founded  on  the  belief  that 
among  the  inhabitants  at  large,  including  non-freemen  and 
non-church-members,  there  would  be  a  considerable  if  not 
quite  a  large  body  of  sympathizers  to  encourage  and  sup 
port  their  own  demands,  and  so  to  further  embarrass  the 
magistracy.  The  latter,  of  course,  were  not  inclined  to 
risk  this  inlet  for  dissension.  The  magistrates  refused  the 
request,  saying  that  anybody  who  pleased  might  come,  but 
that  all  the  people  could  not  be  summoned  to  leave  their 
home  duties,  wives,  children,  and  the  aged,  to  the  mercy  of 

1  Kecords,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  pp.  172,  173. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  513 

the  Indians  and  the  neglect  of  the  labors  of  the  season. 
The  commissioners,  not  liking  this  rebuff,  took  upon  them 
to  address  circulars  of  call  to  leading  persons,  some  of 
them  not  freemen.  They  also  nullified  some  of  the  doings 
of  the  Court  with  other  Colonies,  and  revoked  some  of  its 
grants  of  land.  They  gave  offence  by  discourtesy  as  to 
hospitalities  provided  for  them.  The  refusal  to  summon 
the  Court  on  other  than  its  Charter  seasons,  so  stiffly 
maintained,  called  out  further  remonstrances.  The  com 
missioners  deigned  to  deny  certain  calumnious  rumors  in 
circulation  about  their  errand  and  purposes,  as,  for  in 
stance,  that  they  were  to  demand  a  revenue  of  five  thou 
sand  pounds  for  the  King,  and  intended  to  impose  a 
land-tax. 

All  this,  however,  was  preliminary  skirmishing.  The  com 
missioners  next  brought  out  their  instructions  upon  three 
points  in  the  King's  previous  letter  which  the  Court  had 
neglected  to  notice ;  namely,  his  demand  about  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  the  bold  sheltering  of  the  Regicides,  and 
the  breach  of  the  Navigation  Laws.  To  the  King  and  his 
commissioners  nothing  could  seem  more  reasonable  than 
the  request  that  such  of  his  subjects  resident  here  as 
might  choose  to  do  so,  should  in  their  service  of  worship 
use  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  established  in  the 
realm.  But  that  book  had  come  to  be  to  the  exiled  Puri 
tans  the  symbol  of  many  other  things  connected  with  it, 
against  which  their  prejudices,  convictions,  and  practices 
had  been  strengthened  by  indulgence.  To  have  allowed 
schism  among  them,  the  setting  up  of  rival  worshipping 
assemblies,  and  the  consequent  partition  of  the  support 
raised  for  the  ministry,  presented  practical  difficulties. 
The  use  of  that  book,  it  might  be  feared,  would  bring  in  its 
train  Church  days  and  ceremonies,  especial  privileges  to 
Episcopalians  in  the  government,  demands  for  endowment, 
and  possibly  even  the  importation  of  bishops,  with  such 
blended  temporal  and  spiritual  powers  as  they  exercised 

33 


514  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

in  England.  The  Court  could  not  contemplate  such  con 
sequences  without  the  gravest  apprehensions.  So  to  the 
demand  of  the  King  and  his  commissioners  that  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  be  in  free  use  here,  the  Court  replied, 
not  curtly  with  the  monosyllable  No !  but  with  the  same 
negative  written  out  at  length,  thus :  — 

"  Our  humble  addresses  to  his  Majesty  have  fully  declared  our 
maine  end  in  our  being  voluntary  exiles  from  our  deare  native 
country,  which  wee  had  not  chosen  at  so  deare  a  rate,  could  wee 
have  seen  the  word  of  God,  warranting  us  to  performe  our  de 
votions  in  that  way  and  to  have  the  same  set  up  here ;  wee  con 
ceive  it  is  apparent  that  it  will  disturb  our  peace  in  our  present 
enjoyments." 

Which  means,  that  as  the  Bible  did  not  warrant  their 
performing  their  own  devotions  by  book,  so  it  would  not 
warrant  their  allowing  other  persons  to  do  so.  The  same 
Bible  also  contained  warnings  against  the  betrayal  and 
delivery  of  such  hunted  wanderers  as  the  Puritans  believed 
the  regicides  Whalley  and  Goffe  to  be.2  So  the  Court, 
knowing  very  well  where  those  condemned  traitors  were, 
was  content  with  affirming  that  it  had  issued  a  warrant  for 
their  apprehension  if  in  its  jurisdiction.  They  suffered  no 
harm  here,  but  were  sheltered  till  they  died  in  peace.  As 
to  the  Navigation  Laws,  the  colonists  had  some  conven 
ient  methods  of  their  own  which  they  were  not  disposed 
greatly  to  modify. 

The  commissioners  next  demanded  to  have  before  them 
a  copy  of  "the  Booke  of  the  Generall  Lawes  and  Liberties" 
of  the  Colony,  to  see  if  there  was  in  them  anything  derog 
atory  to  the  King  and  his  authority;  also  a  full  account 
of  the  constitution  of  the  government,  civil  and  ecclesiasti 
cal,  of  the  taxes  and  revenue,  the  military,  forts,  shipping, 
etc.  Of  these  last  matters  the  Court  gave  such  information 
as  it  thought  best  to  communicate.  The  commissioners 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  200.  2  Isaiah  xvi.  3,  4. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  515 

went  through  the  "  Book  of  Lawes  "  very  much  as  a  peda 
gogue  examines  the  composition  of  a  schoolboy.  They 
suggested  twenty-six  amendments,  the  principal  being  as 
follows :  They  required  that  the  King  should  be  declared 
in  the  title  of  the  book  to  be,  by  the  Charter,  the  source  of 
all  authority,  and  that  all  writs  and  acts  should  issue  in 
his  name.  The  King's  arms  should  be  exhibited  in  every 
court-room,  and  the  English  colors  on  every  vessel  and  in 
every  military  foot  company.  The  word  " Commonwealth" 
should  be  stricken  out  wherever  it  appeared,  and  "  His 
Majesty's  Colony"  be  substituted.  It  may  have  been  a 
sense  of  propriety,  or  a  piece  of  cool  and  impudent  effront 
ery,  that  prompted  the  commissioners  to  say  - 

"  There  ought  to  be  inserted  and  ordeined  to  be  kept  the  5th  of 
November  and  the  nine  and  twentieth  of  May,  as  dayes  of  thanks 
giving  :  the  first  for  the  miraculous  preservation  of  our  king  and 
country  from  the  gunpowder  treason,  the  second  for  his  Majesty's 
birth,  and  miraculous  and  happy  restauration  to  his  crownes  upon 
the  same  day ;  as  also  the  thirtieth  of  January,  a  day  of  fasting 
and  praying,  that  God  would  please  to  avert  his  judgements  from 
our  nation  for  that  most  barbarous  and  execrable  murder  of  our 
late  soveraigne,  Charles  the  First."  1 

The  commissioners  understood  too  well  the  temper  of 
those  whom  they  were  addressing,  to  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  they  would  give  any  heed  to  these  suggestions,  or 
construct  a  calendar  for  such  observances.  It  is  possible 
that  some  wag  in  the  Court  might  have  proposed,  by  an 
aside,  that  two  of  the  occasions  be  taken  up,  with  an  in 
version  of  their  observance,  —  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 
being  made  an  occasion  for  Thanksgiving,  and  the  restora 
tion  of  his  son  an  occasion  for  Fasting.  Probably  every 
member  of  the  Court  regarded  the  decapitated  monarch  as 
"  a  perjured  traitor  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people 
of  England,  and  a  convicted  dissembler  and  liar."  The 

1  Records,  vol.  ir.  pt.  ii.  p.  212. 


516  THE   PURITAN    AGE. 

commissioners  required  the  repeal  of  the  penalty  for  keep 
ing  Christmas. 

It  is  unnecessary,  for  our  purpose,  to  follow  up  in  par 
ticulars  the  sharp  and  embittered  contention  of  the  two 
parties  in  this  undecided  issue.  The  commissioners  con 
stituted  themselves  together,  and  even  individually,  a  court 
of  appeal,  not  only  between  the  Colonies,  but  between  the 
Court  and  private  offenders  justly  under  its  discipline  and 
condemnation.  The  Court  stoutly  resisted  all  such  claims 
and  pretences,  falling  back  on  the  Charter  and  the  King's 
assurances  under  it,  which  precluded  his  empowering  his 
commissioners  with  such  functions  as  they  claimed.  Baf 
fled  at  nearly  every  point,  the  commissioners  say  — 

"  We  have  thought  it  necessary  to  reduce  all  the  discourse  hereof 
into  one  question,  whereunto  wee  expect  your  possitive  answer, 
which  wee  shall  faithfully  report  to  his  Majesty :  Whither  doe 
you  acknowledge  his  Majesty's  commission,  wherein  wee  are  nomi 
nated  commissioners,  to  be  of  full  force  to  all  the  intents  and  pur 
poses  therein  conteyned  ?  " 

To  this  categorical  question  the'  Court  replies  :  — 

"Why  you  should  put  us  on  to  the  resolve  of  such  a  question, 
wee  see  not  the  grounds  thereof.  Wee  have  only  pleaded  his 
Majesty's  royall  charter  to  us,  —  it  being  his  speciall  charge  to 
yourselves  not  to  disturbe  us  therein."  1 

The  commissioners  complain  that  in  reimposing  the  oath 
of  allegiance  the  Court  had  fettered  it  with  provisos ;  also, 
that  in  the  pretended  extension  of  the  franchise  to  non- 
church-members, —  demanding  a  rate  of  ten  shillings,— 
while  "  not  one  church  member  in  an  hundred  pays  so 
much  ;  scarce  three  members  in  a  town  of  an  hundred  in 
habitants."  The  commissioners  reported  it  as  the  desire 
of  the  King  that  the  Court  should  send  over  to  him  four  or 
five  of  its  leading  men,  one  of  them  to  be  the  Governor,  for 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  pp.  204-206. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  517 

information  and  direct  conference.  Under  the  circum 
stances  this  would  not  have  been  an  attractive  agency, 
even  if  of  personal  safety,  to  the  messengers.  The  Court 
affirmed  that  its  direct  communications  by  correspondence 
would  meet  all  that  such  agents  could  effect. 

Both  the  parties  to  the  contention  sent  home  their  re 
spective  reports,  with  charges,  criminations,  and  recrimi 
nations,  so  that  both  sides  of  the  shield  were  fully  shown. 
The  Court  addressed  the  King  in  a  very  able  and  ingenious 
paper.  They  did  a  further  act,  the  ingenuity  as  well  as 
the  generosity  of  which  was  well  appreciated.  Knowing  the 
exigencies  of  the  royal  navy  at  the  time,  they  sent  to  the 
King  a  present  of  timber,  principally  masts,  at  an  expense 
to  the  colonial  treasury  of  two  thousand  pounds.  Pepys, 
then  in  the  Admiralty,  knowing  and  appreciating  the  value 
of  the  gift,  wrote  in  his  Diary,  under  Dec.  3,  1666 :  — 

"  There  is  also  the  very  good  news  come  of  four  New  England 
ships  come  home  safe  to  Falmouth  with  masts  for  the  King; 
which  is  a  blessing  mighty  unexpected,  and  without  which  (if  for 
nothing  else)  we  must  have  failed  the  next  year.  But  God  be 
praised  for  thus  much  good  fortune."  1 

It  must  have  been  with  a  degree  of  satisfaction  that  the 
Court  replied  to  certain  queries  put  by  the  King  in  his 
instructions  to  the  commissioners,  asking  — 

"  What  progresse  hath  beene  towards  the  foundation  and  mainte 
nance  of  any  colledg  or  schooles  for  the  education  of  youth,  and  in 
order  to  the  conversion  of  infidells,  and  what  success  hath  attended 
their  pious  endeavours  of  that  kind,"  etc.2 

1  In  October,  1677,  under  its  new  vexations  from  the  troubler  Randolph, 
the  Court  repeated  its  courtesies  to  the  monarch  by  sending  him  some  of  the 
country  produce.     "  It  is  ordered  that  the  Treasurer  doe  forthwith  provide 
tenn  barrels  of  cranburyes,  two  hogsheads  of  speciall  good  sampe,  and  three 
thousand  of  cod  fish,  to  be  sent  to  our  messengers,  by  them  to  be  presented  to 
his  Majesty  as  a  present  from  this  Court  "  (Records,  v.  156). 

2  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  p.  190. 


518  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

The  answer  in  full,  given  to  these  queries  by  the  Court, 
is  one  which  those  of  Puritan  lineage  may  read  with 
pleasure :  — 

"  You  may  please  to  take  notice  that  there  is  a  small  colledge 
in  this  jurisdiction,  at  the  tovvne  of  Cambridge,  called  Harvard 
Colledge,  the  first  and  principall  benefactor  and  founder  thereof 
being  of  that  name.  There  hath  beene  and  is  severall  surnmes 
disbursed  by  the  treasurer  of  this  jurisdiction,  both  for  the 
building  and  maintenance  thereof;  some  small  additions  likewise 
have  beene  cast  in  from  the  benefficence  of  some  well  disposed 
persons. 

"  Wee  have  appointed  the  praesident,  fellowes,  and  treasurer 
of  the  said  colledge  to  give  you  a  particular  account  thereof,  if  you 
desire  it,  and  through  the  blessing  of  God,  wee  may  say  (and  that 
without  boasting)  that  at  least  one  hundred  able  preachers,  phi- 
sittians,  chirurgeons,  and  other  usefull  persons,  that  have  been 
serviceable  in  his  majesty's  dominions,  have  issued  thence.  Touch 
ing  other  schooles,  there  is  by  law  enjoyned  a  schoole  to  be  kept 
and  maintained  in  every  towne,  and  for  such  townes  as  are  of  one 
hundred  families,  they  are  required  to  have  a  grammar  schoole. 
The  country  is  generally  well  provided  of  schooles.  Concerning 
the  civillising  and  instructing  the  Indians  in  the  knowledge  of 
God  and  humaine  learning,  there  is  a  smale  colledge  of  fabricke 
of  bricke  erected  in  Cambridge,  peculiarly  appropriated  to  the 
Indians,  which  was  built  on  the  accompt  and  by  the  order  of  the 
corporation  [meaning  that  in  England].  There  are  eight  Indian 
youths,  one  whereof  is  in  the  colledg  and  ready  to  commence 
batchiler  of  art,  besides  another,  in  the  like  capacity,  a  few  months 
since,  with  severall  English,  was  murdered  by  the  Indians  at  Nan- 
tucket  ;  and  at  other  schools  some  ready  to  come  into  the  colledge, 
all  which  have  been  and  are  mainteyned  on  the  state's  [ !  ]  account 
and  charge.  There  are  six  townes  of  Indians  within  this  juris 
diction,  who  professe  the  Christian  religion,  who  have  lands  and 
towneships  set  forth  and  appropriated  to  them  by  this  court. 
There  are  also  persons  appointed  to  govern  and  instruct  them  in 
civillity  and  religion,  and  to  decide  controversies  amongst  them : 
the  Sabaoth  is  constantly  kept  by  them,  and  they  all  attend  to  the 
publicke  worship  of  God.  They  have  schooles  to  teach  their  youth 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  519 

to  read  and  write  in  severall  of  their  townes,  and  many  of  their 
youth  and  elder  persons  can  read  and  write." J 

Did  space  permit,  these  modest  statements  made  by  the 
Court  on  the  single  subject  of  the  provisions  for  education 
in  the  Colony  would  suggest  a  line  of  interesting  observa 
tions.  A  very  able  and  original  sermon  by  the  late  emi 
nent  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  had  for  its  title,  "  Barbarism 
the  First  Danger."  Its  theme,  suggested  by  the  rapid 
rush  of  large  numbers  of  our  population  into  the  western 
spaces  of  our  country,  was  of  the  risks  and  perils  attend 
ant  upon  the  removal  of  individuals  and  companies  of  men 
from  civilized  and  well-ordered  states  of  society  into  un 
tamed  regions,  there  amid  rude  and  rough  conditions  to 
bear  the  deprivation  of  safeguards  and  civil  and  social  re 
straints.  The  danger  was  of  a  relapse  to  barbarism,  to 
rough,  uncouth,  and  lawless  ways  of  life.  Signally  secured 
from  these  risks  of  deterioration  was  even  the  first  genera 
tion  born  from  the  settlers  of  Massachusetts.  As  remarked 
on  a  previous  page,  they  were  even  more  narrow  and  rigid 
in  their  ways,  less  polished  and  refined  in  manners  and 
gentle  influences  from  the  English  home,  than  were  their 
parents.  But  there  was  among  them  no  sinking  into  illit 
eracy,  coarseness,  or  vulgarity  of  life,  no  decay  of  domestic  or 
social  virtue,  no  relapse  in  the  nobler  qualities  of  manhood 
and  citizenship.  Their  parents  had  gathered  around  them 
safeguards  in  home,  school,  town  meetings,  and  churches. 
So  they  tided  over  the  perils  of  degeneracy.  I  have  'quoted 
the  bold  assertion  of  the  Court  that  the  people  of  the  Colony 
were  uncomplaining  and  content,  and  it  may  be  affirmed 
that  there  was  no  other  community  then  on  the  earth  more 
healthfully  held  to  task-works  of  industry,  or  better  re 
warded  by  thrift,  family  comfort,  intelligence,  and  sobriety, 
than  the  people  of  the  Massachusetts  towns  and  villages. 
The  inhabitants  of  Charlestown,  for  example,  enjoyed  no 

1  Records,  vol.  iv.  pt.  ii.  pp.  198,  199. 


520  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

» 

peculiar  privilege.  Yet  in  a  petition  which  its  freemen 
addressed  to  the  General  Court  in  1668,  they  describe 
themselves  as  "the  most  happy  people  that  they  knew 
of  in  the  world."  1  We  may  be  sure  that  the  generally 
quiet,  contented,  orderly,  and  thrifty  state  of  all  classes 
in  Massachusetts  of  that  generation  averted  much  mis 
chief  that  might  have  resulted  from  the  intermeddling 
errand  of  the  commissioners.  The  people  in  the  towns 
generally  must  have  found  satisfaction  in  the  resolve 
and  skill  by  which  their  deputies  had  maintained  their 
immunities. 

After  this  long  struggle  with  the  emissaries  of  the  Chan 
cellor  Clarendon  and  Charles,  the  Colony,  having  magni 
fied  its  Charter  by  the  firmness  with  which  it  had  stood  for 
it  and  the  amount  of  privilege  and  securities  which  it  had 
found  in  its  parchment  covenants,  had  a  breathing  period 
of  relief  for  about  ten  years.  Then  came  the  direful 
struggle,  amid  massacres,  conflagrations,  and  frontier  deso 
lation,  known  as  Philip's  War.  The  wilderness  nursing 
which  the  first  generation  of  the  English  born  on  this  soil 
had  received,  made  them  more  fitted  than  would  have  been 
their  fathers  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  that  fearful  conflict. 
It  was  from  the  perils  and  atrocities  of  Indian  warfare  at 
that  period  that  our  ancestors  learned  lessons  on  which 
they  were  to  practise  for  more  than  a  century  following. 
It  was  from  those  experiences  also  of  the  stratagems  and 
the  exquisite  skill  and  ingenuity  of  the  savage  barbarities 
of  torture,  that  our  people  conceived  that  merciless  spirit 
toward  their  red  foes,  which  so  far  from  remaining  a  mere 
tradition  among  us,  has  been  kept  in  living  activity  to  this 
day.  More  than  half  of  the  fourscore  towns  of  what  is 
now  the  State  of  Massachusetts  shared  in  degrees  of  deso 
lation,  from  total  destruction  by  fire  and  carnage  down 
to  such  exhaustion  and  dread  as  compelled  the  remnant 
left  in  them  to  abandon  them  for  the  safer  settlements. 

1  Mass.  Archives,  Ixvii.  57. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  521 

A  tenth  part  of  the  full-grown  male  population  fell  in 
open  fight,  were  picked  off  in  their  field  work,  or,  being 
carried  away  as  prisoners,  met  their  shuddering  fate  at 
the  gauntlet  and  the  stake.  The  cost  in  money  to  Massa 
chusetts  was  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  our  present ' 
money,  at  its  then  eight-fold  standard  of  value.  The  Court 
records  are  filled  for  some  years  with  petitions  for  relief 
from  the  wounded,  the  widows  and  orphans,  and  other 
individual  losers  and  sufferers  by  the  catastrophe. 

It  was  before  the  war  had  closed,  and  amid  the  exhaus 
tion,  depression,  and  dismay  of  its  later  stages,  that  the 
Court,  under  the  governorship  of  that  sturdy  Cromwellian 
soldier,  Leverett,  was  called  to  meet  and  tussle  with  the 
initiation  of  those  measures  so  skilfully  prompted  and 
guided  by  their  arch-mischief-maker,  Randolph,  which, 
protracted  for  ten  years,  resulted  in  the  vacating  of  the 
Charter. 

Randolph  first  appeared  here  in  the  middle  of  June, 
1676,  with  letter  and  instructions  from  the  King,  through 
the  Council  for  Plantations,  as  its  messenger.  His  two 
chief  points  of  inquiry  concerned  the  known  trifling  with 
and  defiance  of  the  Navigation  Law  of  the  realm  by  our 
traders,  and  the  complaints  of  Gorges  and  Mason,  as  land 
patentees,  of  trespasses  by  Massachusetts  on  their  bounds. 
It  is  observable  that  from  this  time  very  little  reference  is 
made  from  abroad  to  grievances  arising  from  the  stern  rule 
of  the  theocracy ;  while  our  authorities  found  themselves 
occupied  with  many  malcontents  among  themselves.  A 
monitory  letter  from  the  King  in  the  spring  of  1666  had 
received  but  slight  attention,  and  no  reply,  from  the  Court. 
But  more  than  "  an  hundred  of  the  principal  inhabitants  " 
of  the  Colony  had  petitioned  the  Court  in  October,  advising 
deference  and  caution  in  its  proceedings.1  This,  too,  was 
slighted.  We  are  fully  informed  of  Randolph's  reception 
by  the  magistrates,  —  he  had  no  opportunity  to  meet  the 

1  Hutchinson  Papers,  p.  511. 


522  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

General  Court,  —  and  of  his  course  of  proceedings  in  in 
trigue,  keen  inquisitorial  investigations,  and  attempts  to 
sow  discord,  by  two  full  and  elaborate  reports  which  he 
made  to  the  Council  and  the  King.1  The  magistrates  kept 
him  at  bay,  telling  him  the  matters  of  complaint  were 
trivial,  and  could  be  easily  disposed  of.  They  offered  him 
no  access  to  the  Court,  and  would  not  even  send  back  by 
him  such  reply  as  they  might  make  to  the  King. 

Randolph  spent  a  little  more  than  six  weeks  in  the 
country ;  and  never  did  a  fomenter  of  discord  and  mischief 
use  time  and  opportunity,  wit  and  skill,  more  diligently 
than  he  did.  The  authorities,  wishing  to  be  rid  of  him, 
and  not  intending  to  use  him  as  their  messenger,  suggested 
his  return  in  the  ship  within  the  month.  But  he  said  he 
was  not  ready  to  go  —  had  other  business  —  and  the  King 
had  allowed  him  two  months'  stay.  In  the  interest  of 
Gorges  and  Mason  he  went  to  New  Hampshire  and  Maine, 
for  evidence  of  real  or  alleged  grievances  from  people  there 
from  the  usurpations  of  Massachusetts  beyond  their  bounds, 
and  busied  himself  in  combining  and  instigating  the  mal 
contents  in  opposition.  These  boundary  troubles  were 
finally  disposed  of  by  money  purchase  and  diplomacy. 
But  all  the  annoyances,  discords,  and  legal  proceedings 
which  resulted  in  the  vacating  of  the  Charter  of  Massa 
chusetts,  after  protracted  altercations  and  attempts  to  avert 
the  catastrophe,  may  be  traced  to  the  agency  of  Randolph 
in  this  the  first  of  his  repeated  visits.  When  he  next 
came,  in  February,  168J,  it  was  with  a  commission  as  Col 
lector  of  Boston ;  and  this  office  intimates  to  us  that  his 
keen  inquiries  had  specially  been  engaged  upon  the  thriving 
and  illegal  commerce  from  our  ports  extending  to  all 
points  of  the  compass,  with  profits  from  exports  and  im 
ports  defying  the  navigation  laws  of  the  realm,  and  even 
pretending  and  boasting  of  authority  from  the  Charter. 

Randolph   had    been  charged   to   report,  under  several 

1  Hutchinson  Papers,  pp.  477-511. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  523 

heads  of  inquiry,  concerning  the  present  state  of  New  Eng 
land.  His  papers  are  of  interest  as  furnishing  a  contem 
porary  account  on  many  subjects  relating  to  the  then 
condition  of  the  country,  —  the  mode  of  government ;  the 
laws  as  conformed  or  derogatory  to  those  of  England  ;  the 
population  and  its  elements ;  the  military  with  its  officers  ; 
the  castles  and  forts ;  the  reputed  boundaries  and  contents 
of  land ;  relations  with  the  French  and  New  York  ;  the 
causes  of  the  existing  war  with  the  natives  ;  the  products, 
the  trade,  and  commerce  of  the  country ;  taxes  and  duties ; 
the  state  of  parties  and  their  feelings  toward  England ;  the 
ecclesiastical  government  and  the  college,  with  support 
of  the  ministry,  etc.  Randolph  certainly  picked  up  a  large 
amount  of  detailed  information,  with  facts  and  statistics ; 
though  as  a  matter  of  course  under  the  circumstances  his 
reports  are  not  always  correct  nor  free  from  malignant 
insinuations.  It  did  not  take  him  long  to  learn  that 

"  the  plantation  of  the  Massachusetts  bay,  commonly  called  the  cor 
poration  of  Boston,  is  the  most  flourishing  and  powerfull,  and  at 
the  present  gives  lawes  to  a  great  part  of  this  country,  by  a  pre 
tended  charter  from  his  late  Majesty." 

Randolph  was  especially  bent  upon  finding  disaffected  per 
sons  weary  with  government  in  its  rigidness,  and  ready  for 
a  change.  Nor  was  he  unobservant  of  the  nonchalance 
and  superciliousness  of  the  authorities  toward  himself 
and  his  errand. 

Intimations  were  given  by  some  of  the  discontents  to 
Randolph,  which  he  heartily  approved,  that  the  way  of 
relief  would  be  for  the  King  to  assume  the  direct  control 
of  the  Colonies,  and  to  settle  their  differences  by  sending 
over  a  General  Governor.  When  the  wily  messenger, 
whose  qualities  as  a  nuisance  rather  than  abilities  for 
mischief  had  attracted  the  notice  of  the  magistrates,  was 
on  his  return  voyage,  the  Governor  summoned  the  Court, 
which  confined  its  attention  to  the  complaints  from  Gorges 


524  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

and  Mason,  and  to  the  demand  of  the  King  for  agents  to 
be  sent  to  him.  Elders  were  called  in  for  advice  whether 
the  Court  should  send  agents  or  trust  to  a  written  address. 
The  elders,  laying  stress  on  the  demands  of  courtesy,  ad 
vised  the  sending  of  messengers,  and  fortified  their  advice 
by  Scripture,  as  Rom.  xiii.  5  ;  Titus  iii.  1 ;  Judges  xi.  14. 
The  Court  was  not  wholly  pleased  with  this  advice,  but 
after  some  delay  it  was  concluded  to  send  an  Address  to 
the  King,  to  be  carried  by  Stoughton  and  Bulkeley,  as  rep 
resenting  different  party  views.  Their  instructions,  as 
usual  in  such  cases,  bound  them  within  very  strict  limits 
and  to  specified  matters  of  business,  making  them  de 
pendent  upon  further  advices  from  Massachusetts,  as  their 
reports  from  time  to  time  should  make  necessary.  The 
agents,  sailing  on  the  last  of  October,  1676,  arrived  in  Eng 
land  three  months  after  Randolph.  They  did  not  reach 
Boston,  on  their  return,  till  December,  1679.  During  this 
whole  interval  they  were  fretting  under  the  restraints 
and  annoyances  of  their  mission,  longing  for  release  and 
for  their  home.  Randolph,  with  his  reports  and  machina 
tions,  was  a  thorn  in  their  flesh.  After  debates  on  their 
affairs,  and  offensive  measures  against  Massachusetts  pro 
posed  in  the  Councilor  by  law  officers,  they  would  be  sum 
moned  for  information,  or  to  meet  charges.  They  used 
much  adroitness,  not  a  little  casuistry,  and  a  degree  of 
special  pleading.  But  their  task  was  beset  with  vexatio'ns  ; 
for  the  actual  lack  of  real  loyalty,  and  the  matured  spirit 
of  independence  and  self-sufficiency  in  Massachusetts,  could 
not  be  concealed  by  any  blinds  they  could  interpose.  The 
Court,  to  which  they  faithfully  communicated  information, 
asking  from  it  further  instructions,  was  impatient  for  their 
return.  A  treasury  exhausted,  and  crushing  indebtedness 
incurred  by  the  Indian  War,  made  their  support  burden 
some.  But,  notwithstanding,  the  Court  could  summon  re 
sources  of  money  to  meet  an  emergency.  The  agents  had 
been  secretly  instructed  that  if  pecuniary  purchase  would 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE    COLONY   CHARTER.  525 

alone  buy  off  the  claims  of  Gorges  to  Maine,  to  avail  them 
selves  of  the  opportunity.  This  was  accordingly  done, 
by  the  payment  of  twelve  hundred  pounds,  much  to  the 
chagrin  of  the  King,  who  was  contemplating  the  acquisition 
of  the  province  for  his  natural  son,  Monmouth. 

As  preliminary  to  what  was  further  to  follow,  the  King 
had  written  in  April,  1678,  to  the  Court,  rebuking  it  for 
connecting  with  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  himself  one  for 
"  fidelity  to  the  country."  This  was  derogatory  to  him, 
and  must  be  withdrawn.  The  Court,  in  reply  to  this  and 
other  royal  injunctions  through  the  agents,  had  expressed 
its  readiness  to  comply.  But  to  the  very  end  of  the  con 
test  they  were  now  maturing  to  its  unavertible  result,  they 
stoutly  insisted  upon  their  Charter  rights  as  to  the  admis 
sion  and  qualification  of  freemen.  One  of  the  last  resolute 
utterances  of  the  authorities  asserted  with  emphasis  that 
view  of  the  intent  of  their  enterprise  in  coining  into  this 
wilderness,  which  has  been  accepted  all  through  these 
pages.  The  Court  will  do  anything  to  meet  his  Majesty's 
wishes  about  their  laws,  "  except  such  as  the  repealing 
whereof  will  make  us  to  renounce  the  professed  cause  of  our 
first  coming  hither"  1 

The  discovery  and  prosecution  of  the  Popish  Plot  gave 
another  breathing  space  for  the  interests  of  Massachusetts, 
by  engaging  the  attention  of  the  Council  on  other  matters. 

The  returning  agents,  utterly  wearied  out  and  in  dis 
gust,  brought  with  them  another  letter  from  the  King, 
dated  July  24, 1679.2  In  this,  referring  to  the  limited  and 
unsatisfactory  agency  of  Stoughton  and  Bulkeley,  he  re 
quires  that  two  more  agents,  properly  qualified,  be  sent 
within  six  months.  The  following  sentence  of  the  letter 
would  startle  the  Court :  "  For  since  the  charter,  by  its 
frame  and  contents,  was  originally  to  be  executed  in  this 
kingdom,  and  not  in  New  England,  otherwise  than  by 
deputation,"  a  perfect  settlement  of  difficulties  can  be 

1  Records,  v.  201.  2  Hutchinson,  Collection  of  Papers,  p.  519. 


526  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

made  only  in  England.  What  might  be  said  on  this  point 
has  been  already  anticipated.  The  King  expresses  his  sat 
isfaction  that  his  order  about  the  oath  of  allegiance  has 
been  complied  with.  He  repeats  his  injunction,  — 

"  in  respect  of  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience,  so  as  those  that 
desire  to  serve  God  in  the  way  of  the  Church  of  England  be  not 
thereby  made  obnoxious  or  discountenanced  from  their  sharing  in 
the  government ;  much  less  that  they,  or  any  other  of  our  good 
subjects  (not  being  Papists),  who  do  not  agree  in  the  congrega- 
tionall  way,  be  by  law  subjected  to  fines  or  forfeitures,  or  other 
incapacities,  for  the  same;  which  is  a  severity  to  be  the  more 
wondred  at,  whenas  liberty  of  conscience  was  made  one  princi- 
pall  motive  for  your  first  transportation  into  those  parts :  nor  do 
wee  think  it  fitt  that  any  other  distinction  be  observed  in  the 
making  of  freemen,  than  that  they  be  men  of  competent  estates, 
rateable  at  ten  shillings ;  and  that  such,  in  their  turnes,  be  also 
capable  of  the  magistracy,  and  all  lawes  made  voyd  that  obstruct 
the  same." 

We  must  again  remind  ourselves  that  the  sense  in  which 
the  King  uses  the  phrase,  "  liberty  of  conscience,"  and  in 
the  meaning  which  it  had  for  him,  he  utterly,  though  un 
intentionally,  misrepresented  the  intent  and  design  of  those 
whom  he  addressed.  The  phrase  with  the  latter  signified 
the  privilege  —  rather,  the  obligation  —  to  govern  them 
selves  by  a  rule  made  obligatory  to  them  by  the  Bible. 
They  had  seen  too  much  of  other  exercises  of  the  "  liberty 
of  conscience"  to  dispose  them  either  to  claim  or  to 
allow  it. 

These  last  injunctions  of  the  monarch  fell  disregarded 
by  the  Court.  So  long  as  the  Charter  was  retained  with 
the  privilege  which  it  granted  of  making  freemen  on  its 
own  terms,  the  Court  did  not  believe  that  the  King  had 
any  right  to  make  even  a  suggestion  in  the  matter.  So, 
till  the  Charter  was  voided,  the  theocratical  rule  was  not 
in  any  way  relaxed  ;  ,and  dissenters  from  the  civil  re 
ligious  establishment  here  continued  to  be  taxed  for  its 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  527 

support  precisely  as,  the  parties  being  reversed,  was  the 
case  in  England.  The  King  adds :  "  Wee  have  appointed 
our  trusty  and  well-beloved  subject,  Edward  Randolph, 
Esq.,  to  be  our  collector,  surveyor,  and  searcher  —  for  all 
New  England,"  the  object  being  to  insure  observance  of 
the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation.  The  letter  closes  with 
two  reprimands, —  one  for  the  surreptitious  purchase  of 
Gorges'  province,  which  the  King  claimed  should  be  made 
over  to  him  on  reimbursement  of  its  cost ;  the  other,  that 
the  Court  recall  all  commissions  it  has  granted  for  govern 
ment  in  Mr.  Mason's  province.1 

One  may  begin  at  this  point  in  our  history  and  read  on 
ward  to  the  opening  of  the  War  for  Independence ;  or  he 
may  invert  the  process,  and  beginning  with  the  latter  era 
may  read  backward  to  the  date  of  these  royal  interferences 
with  the  autonomy  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  relations  of 
cause  and  effect  will  by  either  method  be  equally  well 
opened  before  him.  With  Charles  II.  began  that  course 
and  series  of  measures  which  found  their  natural  issue  in 
the  policy  of  George  III. 

Would  it  not  have  been  wiser  for  Charles,  averse  as  he 
was  to  all  annoyances  and  perplexities  of  business,  and 
having  enough  of  trouble  and  anxiety  on  his  own  side  of 
the  sea,  to  have  given  over  all  attempts  at  intermeddling 
with  his  intractable  colonial  subjects  ?  Suppose  he  had 
left  them  to  themselves  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  would 
he  not  have  saved  for  himself  and  his  successors  much 
fruitless  controversy,  diplomacy,  and  treasure,  with  final 
and  humiliating  discomfiture  ?  The  territorial  claim  of 
the  throne  of  England  to  a  transatlantic  region,  whose 
coast  had  been  sighted  by  an  English  subject,  would  have 
been  fully  and  consistently  recognized  in  the  establishment 
upon  it  of  thriving  colonies  of  Englishmen,  leaving  their 
relations  with  the  parent  state  to  the  natural  development 
of  mutual  interests.  If  it  be  answered  that  the  Colonies 

1  Hutchinson,  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  519-522. 


528  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

needed  the  protection  and  patronage  of  England,  the  re 
ply  is  ready.  They  had  never  asked  for  nor  received  any 
such  help,  but  were  shrewdly  cautious  against  seeking  or 
sharing  it.  The  enterprise  of  the  colonists  was  solely  at 
their  own  charges.  As  to  their  collisions  with  their  French 
and  Dutch  neighbors,  these  were  mainly  the  consequences 
of  broils  of  the  parent  countries  at  home ;  and  so  far  as 
was  unavoidable,  the  colonists  could  have  disposed  of  their 
share  in  them  here  as  they  did  in  sharp  work  with  their 
savage  foes.  But  what  we  now  read  as  history  was  to  be 
the  actual,  if  not  the  natural  or  the  preferable,  develop 
ment  of  events. 

Randolph,  who  had  kept  so  keen  a  scrutiny  upon  the 
doings  of  the  colonial  agents  in  England,  followed  them 
home,  arriving  in  Boston,  Jan.  28,  1680,  a  month  after 
them,  having  previously  attended  to  some  business  in  New 
Hampshire.  The  sagacious  and  more  moderate  of  the 
rulers  of  Massachusetts  were  well  aware  that  affairs  were 
working  toward  confusion  and  disaster.  There  were  many 
causes  for  depression  and  anxiety.  Following  the  exhaus 
tion  and  debt  of  Philip's  War,  a  disastrous  lire  in  Bos 
ton,  Aug.  8,  1679,  had  destroyed  property  of  a  value  of 
two  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Two  successive  General 
Courts  disposed  of  some  of  the  lighter  business  required  by 
the  King's  letter.  But  concerning  "  liberty  of  conscience  " 
to  dissentients,  the  old  arguments  were  stoutly  stood  for. 
The  matter  of  greatest  embarrassment  was  the  sending  of 
more  agents  or  messengers,  the  difficulty  of  finding  fit  per 
sons  willing  to  go,  the  risk  they  would  run  personally,  the 
probable  futility  of  their  errand,  and  its  cost.  So  the 
Court  apologized  to  the  King  for  delay,  and  pleaded  its 
reasons  and  misfortunes.  We  had  at  the  time  no  strong 
party  of  friends  in  England,  and  a  few  letters  of  entreaty 
were  written  to  men  in  power.  The  usual  consequences 
of  such  a  crisis  in  affairs  followed  here,  —  variances  and 
antagonisms  of  opinion,  party  animosities  or  preferences, 


DOWNFALL    OF   THE    COLONY   CHARTER.  529 

vacillations  and  hesitations,  both  among  magistrates  and 
deputies.  By  order  of  the  King,  the  number  of  the  magis 
trates  had  been  raised  to  the  Charter  provision,  and  some 
of  them  were  temporizers. 

Randolph  at  once  began  his  official  enforcement  of  the 
laws  of  trade,  but  was  obstructed  and  baffled  in  his  seizure 
of  delinquent  vessels  by  the  intervention  of  courts  and 
juries.  The  best  evidence  of  his  temper  and  purpose  at 
this  juncture  is  found  in  his  "  Representation  of  the  Bos- 
toneers,"  made  to  the  King  in  1680,  as  follows  :  - 

"  1.  That  the  Bostoneers  have  no  right  either  to  land  or  govern 
ment  in  any  part  of  N.  England,  but  are  usurpers,  the  inhabitants 
yielding  obedience  unto  a  supposition  only  of  a  royal  grant  from 
his  late  Majesty. 

"  2.  They  have  formed  themselves  into  a  commonwealth,  denying 
any  appeals  to  England ;  contrary  to  other  plantations,  they  do  not 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

"  3.  They  have  protected  the  murtherers  of  your  royal  father  in 
contempt  of  your  Majestye's  proclamation  and  letter. 

"  4.  They  coin  money  of  their  own  impress. 

"  5.  They  put  your  Majestye's  subjects  to  death  for  religion. 

"  6.  They  did  voyalantly  oppose  your  Majestye's  Commissioners 
in  the  settlement  of  N.  Hampshire,  by  armed  force. 

"  7.  They  impose  an  oath  of  fidelity  upon  those  that  inhabit  within 
their  territories,  to  be  true  and  faithful  to  their  government. 

"  8.  They  violate  all  the  acts  of  trade  and  navigation  by  which 
they  have  ingrossed  the  greatest  part  of  the  West  India  trade, 
whereby  your  Majesty  is  damnified  in  the  customes,  £100,000  yearly, 
and  the  kingdom  much  more. 

"  All  which  he  is  ready  to  prove." l 

And  all  which  he  might  prove,  because  the  charges  were 
true,  excepting  the  first,  and  by  qualification  the  last.  With 
such  a  resolute  and  able  agent  of  mischief  on  the  spot,  — 
and  not  without  sympathizers, — the  prospect  for  Massachu 
setts  was  indeed  dark.  Randolph's  charges  to  the  King  were 
made  the  grounds  of  his  advice  that  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  be 

1  Hutchinson,  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  525,  526. 
34 


530  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

issued  against  the  Charter.  His  bitterness  and  malignity 
were  intensified  by  the  contempt  and  hate  which  he  received. 
The  Court  denied  him  an  attorney.  His  servants,  watching 
a  warehouse,  were  mobbed  and  driven  off.  His  deputy  was 
turned  out  of  doors.  A  vessel  that  he  had  seized  was  towed 
away  by  Boston  men,  while  he  had  the  Governor's  warrant 
for  his  act.  He  tells  the  King  that  his  letters  here  are  of  no 
more  account  than  "  a  London  Gazette."  He  seems  to  have 
been  frightened  away  from  Boston  for  a  while  by  fears  of 
imprisonment.  His  reports  sent  home  led  the  King,  in  spite 
of  the  slight  cast  upon  his  letters,  to  write  another,  dated 
Sept.  30, 1680.  It  is  a  mixture,  in  tone  and  matter,  of  for 
bearance,  chiding,  and  rebuke,  and  requires  agents  to  be 
sent  in  three  months  with  full  instructions  and  powers  for 
settling  all  difficulties.  It  ends  with  a  threat.1  The  Court 
had  sought  to  stiffen  itself  and  its  constituency  for  what 
might  come  next,  by  appointing  Nov.  25  and  Dec.  16,  1680, 
as  respectively  a  day  for  Thanksgiving  and  for  Fasting,  and 
had  rearranged  its  military  organization. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  letter  of  the  King  last  mentioned, 
brought  by  John  Mason,  the  complainant,  a  special  meet 
ing  of  the  General  Court  was  summoned  Jan.  4,  16|-£, 
before  which  the  letter  was  read.  The  Court,  adjourned 
from  day  to  day  through  a  week,  made  some  feint  about 
Mason's  business,  acknowledged  its  dilatoriness  in  the  re 
vision  of  the  laws  as  dictated  from  England,  chose  by  ballot 
William  Stoughton  and  Samuel  Nowell  to  go  abroad  as  its 
agents,  and  adjourned  to  February  22.  Meeting  that  day, 
the  Court  adjourned  again  to  March  16.  We  arc  left  to 
imagine  the  increasing  lack  of  harmony  as  to  the  course  to 
be  pursued  in  the  impending  crisis ;  for  the  Court  engaged 
itself  only  with  less  important  matters,  and  the  single  en 
try  of  interest  on  the  record  is  the  substitution  of  John 
Richards  in  place  of  Stoughton  as  agent,  the  latter  being 
too  sagacious  to  venture  on  the  errand.  The  agents  were  in 

1  Hutcliinson,  Collection  of  Papers,  pp.  523-525. 


DOWNFALL  OP  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  531 

no  hurry  to  start  on  their  mission ;  and  the  Court,  June  3, 
1681,  addressed  a  letter  to  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State, 
accounting  for  the  delay  and  pleading  for  consideration. 
Randolph  had  got  back  to  England  by  April  16,  1681,  fully 
charged  with  ill  reports  and  malicious  advice.  He  found 
the  Privy  Council  engaged  upon  a  proposition  of  a  General 
Governor  for  New  England,  to  be  paid  by  the  King.  Ran 
dolph  had  begun  to  recognize  what  he  calls  "  an  honest 
party  "  in  Massachusetts,  —  meaning  those  whom  he  was 
using  as  his  tools.  It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  in  detail 
every  incident  and  measure  which  prepared  for  or  delayed 
the  final  blow  against  the  self-government  of  Massachusetts. 
Randolph,  with  complacent  self-confidence,  advised  the  King 
to  a  series  of  proceedings  in  the  effecting  of  which  he  pro 
posed  himself  as  the  medium.  The  principal  of  these  were 
the  setting  of  a  General  Governor  over  New  England,  —  his 
candidate  for  the  office  being  Culpepper,  then  in  Virginia,  — 
and  the  prosecution  of  Massachusetts  by  a  writ  of  quo  war- 
ranto.  He  speaks  with  great  confidence  of  the  party  in  his 
interest  here. 

Meanwhile  the  General  Court,  meeting  in  May,  1681,  with 
apparent  coolness,  after  transacting  much  miscellaneous 
business,  gave  its  attention  to  the  objections  against  some 
of  its  laws  raised  by  legal  officers  in  England.  Assenting 
to  some  alterations,  —  like  making  highway  robbery  a  capital 
offence,  that  "  the  law  against  Christmas  be  left  out,"  and 
exempting  banished  Quakers  from  death  if  returning,  —  the 
Court  declined  to  change  its  marriage  or  its  Sabbath  laws. 
That  Monsieur  Tonson  Randolph  appears  in  Boston  again 
December  17.  Good  Judge  Sewall  tells  us  of  something 
which  he  ought  not  to  have  seen,  when,  recording  that 
Randolph  "  and  his  new  wife  and  family "  attended  the 
South  Meeting-house  on  the  25th  he  adds,  "  Mrs.  Randolph 
is  observed  to  make  a  curtsey  at  Mr.  Willard's  naming 
Jesus  even  in  prayer-time." 1 

1  Journal,  under  date. 


532  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Randolph  brought  with  him  an  additional  commission 
for  himself  in  the  revenue  office,  and  another  letter  from 
the  King,  dated  Oct.  21, 1681.  This  in  severe  and  rebuking 
tones  reiterated  all  former  complaints  and  made  additional 
ones,  demanding  again  that  fully  empowered  agents  be 
forthwith  sent  to  him,  "  in  default  whereof  we  are  fully 
resolved,  in  Trinity  Term  next  ensuing,  to  direct  our  Attor 
ney  General  to  bring  a  quo  warranto  in  our  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  whereby  our  charter  granted  unto  you,  with  all  the 
powers  thereof,  may  be  legally  evicted  and  made  void." 1 
The  King  had  then  rid  himself  of  a  Parliament,  and  was  to 
be  feared.  The  Court,  assembling  Feb.  15,  168|,  at  once 
addressed  the  King,  beginning  with  conciliatory  and  cour 
teous  terms,  again  referring  to  the  straits  and  hardships  of 
their  enterprise,  stating  the  changes  made  in  their  laws  in 
compliance  with  orders,  and  that,  in  obedience  to  his  letter 
of  October,  1681,  they  had  despatched  Dudley  and  Richards 
as  messengers.  The  agents,  however,  did  not  sail  till  the 
last  of  the  following  May.  The  instructions  they  received 
before  departing  were  carefully  drawn  and  guarded.  They 
were  to  apologize  for  the  minting  of  money  in  the  Colony 
as  a  matter  of  necessity.  In  a  previous  communication  to 
the  King  on  this  subject,  the  Court  had  asked  liberty  to 
continue  this  minting,  and  had  suggested  to  him  to  offer 
a  stamp  or  device  for  the  coins.  The  agents  were  to 
report,  — 

"  That  wee  have  no  law  prohibiting  any  such  as  are  of  the  per- 
swasion  of  the  church  of  England,  nor  have  any  ever  desired  to 
worship  God  accordingly  that  have  been  denyed.  For  liberty  of 
conscience  wee  have  been,  as  wee  then  conceived,  necessitated  to 
make  some  severe  lawes  to  prevent  the  violent  and  impetuous 
intrusions  of  the  Quakers  at  their  first  coming  into  these  parts, 
and  our  proceedings  thereupon  were  approved  by  his  majesty  in 
his  gratious  letter  of  June  28 ;  which  also  for  divers  yeares  have 
been  suspended,  upon  the  signification  of  his  majesty's  pleasure 
1  Chalmers,  Annals,  p.  443. 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE    COLONY   CHARTER.  533 

therein ;  and  as  for  the  Annabaptists,  they  are  now  subject  to  no 
other  poenal  statutes  than  those  of  the  Congregational  way. 

"  For  admission  of  freemen,  wee  humbly  conceive  it  is  our  lib 
erty,  by  charter,  to  chuse  whom  wee  will  admit  into  our  owne  com 
pany,  which  yet  hath  not  binn  restryned  to  Congregational  men, 
but  others  have  been  admitted,  who  were  also  provided  for,  accord 
ing  to  his  majesty's  direction,  by  a  lawe  made  anno  1664  in  answer 
to  his  majesty's  letter  of  June  28,  1662;  and  the  law  restreyning 
freemen  to  church  members  only,  is  repealed." 

Other  instructions  refer  to  matters  of  trade,  appeals, 
Mr.  Mason's  and  Mr.  Gorges'  affairs,  etc.  The  King  hav 
ing  said  something  about  "  the  regulation  of  the  govern 
ment,"  as  he  had  promised  "  not  to  violate  or  infringe  our 
charter,"  the  agents  are  not  to  consent  to  anything  of  that 
tendency,  and  are  to  say  that,  having  received  no  instruc 
tions,  they  cannot  entertain  the  matter.1 

Considering  the  weighty  business  on  which  the  agents 
had  gone,  the  Court  appointed  June  22,  following  their 
departure,  for  a  Fast  Day.  Randolph,  who  had  been 
watching  the  efforts  of  the  Court  to  avert  his  own  plot- 
tings,  and  who  had  acquainted  himself  with  the  instruc 
tions  to  the  agents,  sent  further  despatches  of  his 
complaints  in  the  vessel  with  them.  In  one  of  these  he 
had  the  effrontery  to  suggest  to  the  Bishop  of  London' 
that  some  of  the  funds  of  the  English  Charitable  Society, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Indians,  be  used  to  support  the  wor 
ship  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Boston.  He  intimated 
the  pliability  and  subserviency  of  a  substitute  agent, — 
Dudley.  His  judgment  of  this  degenerate  son  of  the 
stiffest  and  most  bigoted  of  the  first  company  of  exiles 
here,  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley,  was  abundantly  confirmed  by 
his  later  course.  Born  when  his  father  had  passed  his 
seventieth  year,  he  lived  to  be  a  servant  and  agent  of,  if 
not  an  effective  instrument  in  bringing  about,  the  changed 
form  of  government  for  the  Colony,  of  which  his  father 

1  Records,  v.  346-349. 


534  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

was  one  of  the  boldest  and  sternest  spirits.  He  stands  in 
our  histories  with  stains  upon  his  manhood  and  good  fame. 
It  may  be  that  his  pliancy  was  not  all  from  self-seeking, 
but  can  in  a  measure  be  referred  to  policy  when  he 
discerned  clearly  that  the  forfeiture  of  the  Charter  was 
inevitable. 

The  agents,  bent  on  their  futile  errand,  had  a  tedious 
voyage  of  nearly  three  months.  They  presented  their  case, 
as  instructed,  before  the  Privy  Council,  excusing  their  de 
lay,  and  defending  the  Colony  and  its  government  against 
such  charges  as  they  were  permitted  to  refer  to  by  the 
authorities  behind  them.  They  said  that  the  Colony  was 
under  a  crushing  debt  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  from  the 
Indian  war ;  that  the  Liturgy  might  now  be  used  in  wor 
ship  by  such  as  wished  it ;  that  Church  of  England  men 
could  hold  office ;  and  that  the  Acts  of  Trade  and  Navi 
gation  were  in  force.  The  Records  of  the  Court,  begin 
ning  with  168|,  are  crowded  with  the  tokens  of  distress 
and  discomfiture,  of  baffled  efforts,  and  of  apprehensions 
that  what  was  dreaded  was  certain  to  befall.  And  as 
strongly  marked  in  these  Records  are  the  evidences  of  a 
still  resolute  will,  of  nerve  and  constancy,  of  a  determina 
tion  to  hold  out  in  the  struggle,  to  prolong  it  in  order  to 
defer  the  fatal  blow,  —  the  only  hope  being  that  some 
trouble  or  complication  at  home,  as  had  heretofore  favored 
them,  might  interpose  for  their  relief.  Randolph,  through 
the  whole  critical  period,  passed  to  and  fro,  the  diligent 
agent  of  mischievous  or  of  loyal  machinations  on  both 
sides  of  the  water.  He  crossed  the  ocean  at  least  fourteen 
times.  He  informed  himself  thoroughly  of  all  the  ele 
ments,  the  personal  and  party  relations,  the  public  inter 
ests,  the  individual  intrigues  and  ambitions,  which  entered 
into  the  strife,  and  found  delight,  as  was  believed,  in  the 
simple  exercise  of  his  malignity. 

He  remained  long  enough  at  intervals  here  to  watch  the 
working  of  the  perplexities  and  dissensions  he  had  already 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  535 

provided  for  the  authorities,  trying  to  probe  the  secrets  of 
the  vacillating,  and  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  restricted 
instructions  given  to  the  agents.  He  would  most  diligently 
write  letters,  filled  with  his  mischief,  to  go  by  every  out 
ward  bound  vessel,  till  he  thought  it  necessary  to  make  a 
return  voyage  that  he  might  personally  watch,  embarrass, 
and  circumvent  the  agents,  as  his  schemes  and  plots  ma 
tured.  Meanwhile  those  two  agents,  under  all  their  limita 
tions  and  annoyances,  were  not  of  one  mind.  They  had 
been  specially  matched  by  the  Court  as  an  offset  to  each 
other,  by  their  opposite  proclivities,  temperaments,  and 
party  relations.  Randolph  was  sure  that  he  would  find, 
if  not  a  helping,  yet  not  an  obstructive,  instrument  in 
Dudley  ;  while  Richards  was  stoutly  patriotic  to  the  Colony, 
and  incorruptible. 

Nor  was  there  by  any  means  perfect  harmony,  unity  of 
purpose,  accord  in  judgment,  or  resolution  for  the  same 
ends  of  patriotism,  among  the  authorities  and  the  people 
here.  The  simplicity,  austerity  of  manners,  and  charac 
teristic  Puritan  spirit  of  the  first  age  had  become  sensibly 
qualified,  in  Boston  especially,  and  among  magistrates  and 
others  in  office.  It  was  not  so,  or  to  any  such  extent,  in 
the  rural  parts  of  the  Commonwealth,  where  the  primitive 
tone  and  habits  were  rather  strengthening  than  relaxing 
their  sway.  So  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies  were  not 
in  full  harmony.  Englishmen  only  transiently  resident 
here  for  trade  and  commerce,  and  some  of  our  enriched 
citizens,  had  introduced  the  dangers  and  fascinations,  as 
well  as  the  amenities,  of  luxury  and  ease. 

The  Governor  communicated  to  the  Court  in  February, 
168|,  a  whole  Pandora's  box  of  troubles,  —  a  letter  of  a 
threatening  tone  from  the  King,  with  other  documents, 
copies  of  Randolph's  complaints,  and  laments  from  the 
agents.  The  Court,  receiving  the  whole  in  a  mass,  had 
but  to  adjourn  day  by  day  for  deliberation,  in  order  to  deal 
with  each  subject  in  detail.  Meanwhile  the  familiar  effort 


536  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

for  relief  and  renewal  of  resolve  was  sought  in  the  appoint 
ment  of  a  Fast.  A  law  passed  in  October,  1673,  enjoining 
a  delay  of  a  year  for  allowing  the  voting  of  a  freeman  other 
than  a  church  member,  was  repealed.  From  this  time  on 
ward,  till  the  dreaded  blow  fell,  each  address  and  appeal 
of  the  Court  contained  a  more  and  more  emphatic,  often 
pleading  and  pathetic,  reference,  with  urgent  insistence  to 
the  primary  purpose  and  motive  of  the  first  patentees,  to 
plant  a  Colony  here,  as  dissenters  from  the  Church  of 
England,  under  their  own  scheme  of  a  Biblical  common 
wealth.  This  was  asserted  to  the  last. 

Thus,  in  a  humble  address  —  adulatory,  gratulatory,  and 
in  a  supplicatory  spirit  —  now  sent  to  the  King,  praying 
for  consideration  and  delay  in  judgment,  the  Court  insists 
upon  its  covenanted  Charter  rights.  The  agents  also  are 
further  instructed,  "  joyntly,  and  not  severally,"  to  go 
the  utmost  lengths  in  compliance  and  concession,  —  "  to 
accept  of  and  consent  unto  such  proposalls  and  demands 
as  may  consist  with  the  mayne  ends  of  our  predecessors 
in  their  removall  hither  our  charter,"  l  etc.  They  were  not 
to  consent,  under  any  stress,  to  any  alteration  of  the  funda 
mentals  of  that  Charter.  Again,  in  further  instructions  of 
March  30, 1683,  we  read  :  - 

"  Whereas,  in  our  commission  and  power  sent  to  you,  one  gen- 
erall  limitation  is  the  saving  to  us  the  main  ends  of  our  coming 
over  into  this  wilderness,  you  are  thereby  principally  to  under 
stand  our  liberties  and  priviledges  in  matters  of  religion  and  wor 
ship  of  God,  which  you  are  therefore  in  nowise  to  consent  to  any 
infringement  of."2 

Still  further  private  instructions  bid  the  agents  observe 
that  the  King's  avowed  purpose  "  of  the  regulation  of  this 
government "  cannot  mean  "  an  abolition  of  our  charter, 
or  any  essentiall  part  of  it."  Yet,  "  if  nothing  will  satisfy 
but  the  nulling  our  charter,  or  imposing  of  appeales,"  then 

i  Records,  v.  386.  2  Ibid.,  390. 


DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  537 

they  have  liberty,  "  but  are  to  be  slow  "  in  using  it ;  "  to 
tender  the  Province  of  Maine,  or  give  up  any  thing  else, 
but  what  our  charter  will  not  warrant  our  keeping."  Yet 
if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  and  a  quo  warranto  is  to 
proceed,  they  must  take  advice  whether  they  will  resist  and 
make  dispute,  —  ube  sure  you  spend  little  or  no  money 
therein,  unless  you  cann  have  very  good  assurance  that  it 
may  be  substantially  made  and  mainteyned  by  law."  l 

These  instructions  were  accompanied  by  a  petition  sub 
scribed  by  the  inhabitants  at  large  in  three  of  the  counties 
of  the  Colony,  addressed  to  the  King,  the  presenting  of 
which  was  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  agents.  This  peti 
tion,  tender  and  earnest  in  its  supplication,  asks  "  that  they 
may  not  be  deprived  of  those  liberties  and  privileges  which 
they  hold  in  such  high  esteeme,  and  have  themselves  and 
progenitors  been  at  so  great  hazard  and  charge,  and  en- 
countred  with  such  extream  difficultyes  for  the  injoyment 
thereof."2 

To  complete  here  what  is  further  to  be  said  as  to  this 
pleading  with  the  King  on  the  ground  of  the  religious 
intent  in  the  settlement  of  the  Colony,  I  will  anticipate  by 
quoting  from  the  Records  two  more  strong  expressions  of 
it.  In  an  "  humble  petition  and  address  to  the  King," 
October,  1684,  the  Court  pleads  :- 

"  The  cause  and  ground  of  our  fathers  (and  of  some  yet  living) 
leaving  all  that  was  deare  to  them  and  us  in  England  to  come  into 
this  wildernesse,  a  land  then  not  inhabited  (but  by  the  Indeans,  of 
whom  wee  purchased  the  right),  was  not  out  of  dislike  to  the  civil 
government,  which  wee  alwayes  highly  prized,  and  accounted  at 
the  least  aequall  to  the  best  in  the  world,  nor  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  church  of  England,  which,  for  the  substance  thereof,  we  owne, 
embrace,  and  professe ;  but  to  avoyd  the  severity  then  exercised  in 
many  places,  because  their  consciences  could  not  permit  them  to 
conforme  to  some  ceremonies  of  the  church  strictly  imposed,  ac 
counted  by  some  indifferent  things,  but  to  them  otherwise.  And 
i  Records,  v.  391.  *  Ibid§j  388. 


538  THE  PURITAN  AGE. 

therefore,  to  avoyd  giving  offence  to  his  majesty,  or  undergoing 
that  burthen  they  were  not  able  to  beare,  they  chose  rather,  in  a 
quiet,  orderly  manner,  to  leave  their  dearest  native  country,  com 
mitting  themselves  to  the  Providence  of  the  Most  High,  to  en 
counter  the  difficulties  both  of  the  sea  and  the  wildernesse.  This 
his  Majesty  Charles  the  First,  of  happy  memory  [!],  well  under 
stood,  who  freely  and  graciously  granted  them  a  patent  for  this 
place,  with  the  priviledges  therein  conteyned,  to  them  and  their 
successors  for  ever :  and  upon  the  confidence  and  security  of  that 
royall  grant,  transplanted  themselves,  where  they  and  wee  have 
lived  as  exiles  and  great  sufferers,  grapling  with  many  difficulties, 
daingers,"  etc.1 

These  certainly  are  strong,  and  apparently  perfectly  sin 
cere,  affirmations,  made  as  stating  the  ruling  motives  of 
the  founders  of  the  Colony.  Those  who  see  any  reasons 
for  impugning  this  sincerity  are  at  liberty,  if  they  judge  it 
right  to  do  so,  to  suggest  that  these  affirmations  are  in 
genious  after-pleas  adroitly  urged  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
truth. 

Yet  once  more.  At  a  session  of  the  Court,  July  21, 
1685,  on  tidings  of  the  death  of  Charles  II.,  a  petition  is 
addressed  to  his  brother  and  successor,  James  II.  Begin 
ning  with  respectful  recognition  and  sympathy,  the  petition 
recites :  — 

"  Our  fathers,  and  some  of  us  with  them,  left  their  native  land, 
with  all  their  pleasant  and  desirable  things  therein  [with  the  usual 
references  to  the  ocean,  the  wilderness,  the  Indians,  hardships,  per 
ils,  poverty,  etc.],  and  for  the  space  of  fifty  years  and  upwards,  — 
all  this  was  donne  and  suffered  that  our  fathers,  and  wee  their 
children  after  them,  might  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  our  consciences,  founded  upon  the  sacred  Scriptures,  which  lib 
erty  of  our  religion  wee  esteeme  more  deare  to  us  than  our  lives : 
nor  did  they  come  hither  but  with  the  approbation  and  princely 
encouragement  of  your  majestie's  royall  ancestors,  declared  in 
their  letters  patents,  and  afterwards  often  rattefied  by  the  word  of 
a  king,"  etc.2 

1  Records,  v.  456,  457.  2  Ibid.,  495. 


DOWNFALL   OF  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  539 

For  the  sake  of  bringing  together  these  reiterated  ap 
peals  for  warding  off  the  dreaded  stroke,  I  have  slightly 
anticipated  the  main  current  of  the  narration.  At  the 
opening  of  the  General  Court,  Nov.  7,  1683,  the  Governor 
communicated  the  doleful  tidings.  The  harassed  and 
disheartened  agents  had  got  back  to  Boston,  October  22. 
Four  days  afterward  Randolph  arrived,  elated  with  the  con 
sciousness  that  after  his  long  enmity  and  plotting  he  had 
triumphed  in  his  purpose.  Before  his  return  to  England 
again,  December  14,  he  had  communicated  his  fatal  papers, 
now  on  the  Records,1  which  the  Court  were  then  to  enter 
tain.  They  included  the  writ  against  the  Massachusetts 
Charter,  which  had  issued  June  27,  notifying  the  Com 
pany  of  the  quo  warranto,  and  summoning  the  defendants 
to  meet  it  at  the  Court  in  London.  Randolph  brought  with 
him  two  hundred  copies  of  all  the  proceedings  against  the 
Charter,  which  he  was  to  distribute,  and  also  a  Declara 
tion  of  the  King  promising  certain  favors  on  certain  con 
cessions.  After  watching  the  effect  of  these  missiles, 
Randolph  was  to  return  and  make  report.  The  colonial 
agents  in  England,  not  being  willing  or  able  to  undertake 
the  defence  of  their  cause,  had  been  allowed  to  go  home, — 
not,  however,  to  sail  till  after  Randolph,  as  it  was  desired 
that  he  should  reach  here  before  them.  Randolph  had 
sought  in  vain  to  have  a  frigate  and  some  military  demon 
stration  to  accompany  him,  actually  or  feigningly  suggest 
ing  some  possible  resistance.  It  is  not  strange  that  some 
of  the  firmest  patriots  in  the  Colony  muttered  mysterious 
suggestions  about  seeking  to  put  themselves  under  the  pro 
tection  of  some  foreign  friendly  power. 

The  reader  is  referred  to  fuller  historical  narrations  than 
the  limited  scope  of  these  pages  allows,  if  he  would  follow 
the  details  closing  the  chartered  existence  of  the  Bay  Col 
ony,  and  would  trace  the  futile  efforts  of  the  distressed 
but  still  desperately  resisting  authorities  to  avert  their  fate. 

1  Records,  v.  421-423. 


540  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Times  and  men,  influences  and  agencies,  on  both  sides  of 
the  ocean,  had  undergone  great  changes  from  the  condi 
tions  under  which,  in  previous  threatenings  of  calamity, 
the  Court  had  averted  it,  by  its  stoutness,  its  policy,  and 
its  acute  ingenuity  of  resource.  The  King,  now  supreme 
in  his  arbitrary  prerogative,  rid  of  the  hampering  re 
straints  of  Parliaments,  with  the  ready  countenance  of 
his  advisers  could  work  his  will.  The  Puritan  party,  the 
great  and  noble  leaders  of  which  were  dead,  and  the  re 
maining  sympathizers  with  which  in  the  lower  ranges  of 
society  and  influence  were  powerless,  could  no  longer,  as 
in  the  years  of  the  Commonwealth,  shelter  and  strengthen 
the  self-sufficient  Colony.  The  pristine  vigor,  the  har 
mony  of  spirit  and  purpose,  the  general  equality  of  condi 
tion,  the  principles,  habits,  and  simplicity  of  life,  and  the 
resolute  independence  of  the  early  years  of  the  Colony, 
had  all  yielded  to  deteriorating  influences.  The  official 
and  the  private  papers  relating  to  the  crisis  reveal  to  us  so 
fully  the  incidents,  passions,  and  feelings  of  the  passing 
years,  that  the  reader  is  well-nigh  made  to  share  the  an 
guish  and  dismay  of  the  rumors,  the  experiences,  and  the 
alarms  of  the  people,  and  to  watch  the  distrust  and  bitter 
ness  of  alienated  sentiments  attached  by  the  patriot  party 
to  those  who  openly  or  privately  counselled  submission  to 
the  King.  Dudley  had  either  by  such  reckoning  with  him 
self  as  satisfied  his  judgment,  —  not  to  say  his  conscience, 
—  or  by  the  lures  of  place  and  ambition,  committed  himself 
against  the  spirit  of  his  father  and  former  favoring  friends. 
Seated  among  the  magistrates  on  his  return,  he  won  a  ma 
jority  of  them  to  compliance.  This  upper  body  of  the 
Court  voted  another  humble  Address  to  the  King,  and  a 
commission  to  more  agents  instructed  to  yield  submission, 
without  contention  with  the  King  at  law,  confiding  in  his 
pledge  that  his  intent  was  only  to  regulate  their  govern 
ment,  not  to  destroy  it.  Some  of  the  deputies  were  ready 
to  consent;  but  a  majority  resisted,  offering  strong  reasons 


DOWNFALL    OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  541 

and  protests,  and  plying  Scripture  texts  against  the  sin  of 
self-destruction  either  by  suicide  or  fatal  concession.  So 
Randolph  had  to  carry  back  with  him  the  return  that  the 
Court  rejected  the  royal  proposal.  The  Court,  Dec.  5, 
1683,  commissioned  Robert  Humphreys,  an  eminent  Lon 
don  lawyer,  as  their  attorney,  to  make  defence  in  order 
"to  save  a  defult  and  outlawry  for  the  present."  The 
Court  also  made  trial  of  some  legal  quibbles.  It  further 
instructed  Humphreys  "  to  spinn  out  the  case  to  the  utter 
most,"  and  to  retain  counsel,  adding  another  appeal  to  the 
King.  But  the  case  had  been  already  spun  out  till  the 
tenuity  of  its  thread  had  been  broken.  Dudley  received  a 
private  letter  in  October,  1684,  informing  him  that  a  scire 
facias  had  been  issued  from  Chancery  against  the  Com 
pany,  to  which  answer  was  to  be  made  within  six  weeks. 
The  Court  made  publication,  Jan.  28,  168|,  that  the  Char 
ter  had  been  condemned,  and  considering  the  "  sad  and 
awfull  circumstances,"  appointed  a  day  of  humiliation,  and 
sent  another  letter  to  the  King  from  "  his  poore  and  dis 
tressed  subjects."  Charles  died  Feb.  6,  168|.  The  event 
was  announced  in  the  Court,  May  7,  and  James  II.  was 
proclaimed  in  Boston,  April  20.  The  letter  addressed  to 
him  by  the  Court  lias  already  been  referred  to.  Final 
judgment  was  entered  against  the  Charter,  Oct.  23,  1684. 
Humphreys  sent  to  the  Court  a  copy  of  it  in  the  following 
May.  For  a  long  period  of  uncertainty,  of  deep  distress 
and  increasing  dissension,  the  people  waited  for  what  was 
to  follow.  Dudley,  associated  with  others  as  a  commis 
sion,  was  appointed  by  the  royal  Council  to  the  headship 
of  affairs  in  the  prostrated  Commonwealth.  It  was  with 
the  bitterness  of  pain  and  resentment  that  the  Court,  meet 
ing  May  20,  1686,  complained  that  the  communication 
made  to  them  by  the  commission  was  not  addressed,  as  of 
old,  to  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
but  to  "  some  of 'the  principall  gentlemen  and  chief  inhabi 
tants."  "  A  royal  covenant  was  broken." 


542  THE   PURITAN  AGE. 

Thus  after  a  practical  trial  of  a  little  more  than  half  a 
century,  the  experiment  of  a  theocratic  form  of  govern 
ment,  to  be  administered  by  statutes  and  ordinances  gath 
ered  from  the  Bible  and  digested  into  a  creed  covenanting 
the  administrators  of  it,  was  brought  to  a  close.  It  was 
terminated,  not  directly  by  the  exposure  of  its  impolicy 
and  injustice,  nor  by  the  failure  of  the  will,  purpose,  and 
ability  of  its  administrators  still  to  maintain  it,  but  by  the 
interposition  of  external  authority.  I  stated  in  the  begin 
ning  that  the  founders  and  legislators  of  Massachusetts 
had  sought  to  establish  a  wholly  original  form  of  govern 
ment,  with  novel  conditions  of  citizenship.  Nowhere  in 
the  world  —  not  even  in  any  part  or  age  of  Christendom  — 
had  there  been  a  precedent  for  it.  If  enough  has  not 
been  already  said  about  the  good  faith  and  the  thorough 
sincerity  of  purpose  with  which  the  scheme  was  devised  and 
put  on  trial,  this  would  be  shown  to  appear  in  the  unyield 
ing  firmness  and  persistency  with  which  it  was  maintained, 
not  only  against  those  who  opposed  and  impugned  it, 
but  also  against  difficulties  and  a  succession  of  frustrated 
efforts  to  enforce  it,  which,  as  we  view  the  case,  might 
have  induced  even  its  fondest  approvers  to  abandon  it. 
But  so  far  was  this  from  being  true,  that  the  authorities 
never  lost  faith  or  heart  in  it ;  they  mourned  their  own  dis 
comfiture,  and  alleged  that  the  royal  covenant  so  solemnly 
plighted  to  them  had  been  meanly  dishonored.  And  so, 
not  in  championship,  or  defence  of  these  Puritan  legisla 
tors,  but  recognizing  simply  the  originality,  the  novelty, 
the  wholly  unique  and  peculiar  qualities  of  their  model  for 
government  and  their  qualification  for  citizenship,  it  would 
seem  that  we  ought  in  fairness  to  adjust  our  judgment  of 
them.  Our  early  Puritanism,  limited  and  transient  as  it 
was,  covering  only  one  of  our  five  half-centuries,  has  at 
tached  an  historic  repute  to  our  whole  history.  It  is  from 
this  brief  period  of  theocratic  and  Bible  rule  that,  not  so 
much  in  grave  and  sober  histories,  as  in  light  popular 


DOWNFALL   OP  THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  543 

essays  and  windy  and  flashy  speeches,  with  their  gibes  and 
satires,  our  State  has  been  put  under  reproach.  In  many* 
cheap  flings  from  ill-informed  and  superficial  declaimers, 
the  dark  and  dismal  period  of  our  history  is  presented,  and 
even  that  with  exaggerations,  as  if  it  were  the  whole  of  it. 
As  by  English  law  traitors  went  to  the  block  and  heretics 
to  the  stake,  so  many  of  us  have  heard  from  our  orators 
that  Massachusetts  burned  Quakers  and  witches.  But 
how  stands  the  case  in  general  history,  and  in  our  own 
history  ?  There  was  not  at  the  time,  nor  had  there  ever 
been,  a  civil  government  in  any  State  in  Christendom 
which  did  not  legislate  for  and  enforce  doctrines  and  prac 
tices  of  religion,  upheld  by  penalties.  The  whole  question 
for  us  concerns  the  novel  and  peculiar  way  in  which  that 
religious  legislation  was  devised  here.  Our  early  Puritan 
ism  differed  in  spirit  and  discipline  from  other  forms  of  re 
ligion  under  Papal  and  Protestant  rule,  not  in  being  any 
more  or  any  less  intolerant  or  persecuting  than  they  were, 
but  in  the  motive,  method,  and  direction  of  its  intolerance. 
Seemingly,  Puritanism  would  have  more  to  say  for  itself  in 
defending  its  intolerance,  in  that,  instead  of  planting  its 
authority  on  ghostly  claims  of  priestly  and  superstitious 
sanction,  utterly  incapable  of  being  certified,  and  to  be 
accepted  only  by  faith  or  credulity,  it  appealed  to  divinely 
attested  writings,  readable  and  intelligible,  which  all 
Christian  people  professed  to  acknowledge  and  revere. 

In  these  passing  days  we  find  occasion  to  affirm  that 
while  dissent,  anarchy,  and  nihilism  may  make  resistance 
against  arbitrary  and  despotic  governments,  they  should  be 
silent  under  citizenship  in  a  constitutional  republic  where 
organic  and  statute  law  receives  its  authority  from  its  own 
members.  It  would  seem  that  the  Puritan  founders  of  Mas 
sachusetts  recognized  the  same  distinction  for  their  rule  by 
an  acknowledged  code.  Under  the  Papal  and  Prelatical 
sway  they  affirmed  that  human  inventions,  sacerdotal  and 
despotic  enactments,  and  ghostly  assumptions  claiming  a 


544  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

Divine  authority,  rested  wholly  upon  the  caprice  or  inter 
ests  of  those  who  devised  them,  and  could  not  be  verified 
by  tests  of  historic  proof  or  processes  of  impartial  judg 
ment  or  reason.  These  were  airy,  floating,  arid  sandy 
foundations,  and  could  not  compel  devout,  free,  and  earn 
est  men  to  build  upon  them.  But  Papists  and  Prela- 
tists,  as  well  as  Puritans,  believed  that  the  Bible  was  the 
word  of  God,  "  a  sure  testimony,"  offering  them  a  consti 
tution  under  which  they  were  all  citizens.  The  corollary 
then  followed :  persecution  and  intolerance  were  unlawful 
and  wicked  when  exercised  under  Papal  or  Prelatical  au 
thority  ;  but  they  were  justifiable,  or  rather  ceased  to  be 
persecution  and  intolerance,  when  the  magistrates  of  a 
Christian  commonwealth  required  of  its  citizens  to  obey 
"  the  Statutes,  Laws,  and  ordinances  of  God."  Puritan 
ism  held  its  citizens  to  obedience  and  allegiance  to  the 
Bible,  just  as  the  civil  government  assumes  that  all  citi 
zens  know  the  law  and  are  bound  to  conform  to  it.  These 
intolerant  principles  in  the  methods  of  all  religion  mark 
stages  in  the  struggles  of  progressive  liberty,  light,  and 
knowledge.  We  must  certainly  admit  that  an  advance 
was  made,  when  the  right  of  using  intolerance  and  re 
straint  was  withdrawn  from  the  support  of  priestly  and 
human  inventions  in  religion,  and  was  claimed  to  be  al 
lowable  only  according  to  the  rule  of  the  "  Word  of 
God."  They  answer  in  many  points  of  resemblance  to 
the  traditions,  experiments,  and  errors  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  the  healing  art.  The  Antinomians,  Bap 
tists,  and  Quakers,  under  spiritual  treatment  here,  had 
their  counterparts  at  the  time  in  invalids  and  patients 
under  the  hands  of  the  doctors,  with  pills  and  purgings, 
suffering  exhaustive  bleeding,  and  denied  air  and  water 
on  their  fevered  beds.  Physicians  of  our  time  are  prime 
offenders  against  the  commandment  to  honor  their  fathers, 
if  it  is  to  be  taken  in  the  Westminster  covenant  sense  of 
respect  and  deference  to  authorities. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  545 

Having  thus  painfully,  and  with  a  purpose  of  fidelity, 
traced  the  Puritan  rule  of  our  first  half-century,  we  may 
naturally  ask  if  the  residuum  and  deposit  and  aftermath 
of  Puritanism,  its  principles  and  its  habits,  have  not  left 
us  something  more  and  better  to  appreciate,  esteem,  and 
honor  ?  As  has  been  stated  on  an  early  page  of  this  vol 
ume,  the  influx  of  foreign  and  uncongenial  elements  in 
this  place  "  for  the  publique  meetings  "  of  the  Puritan  set 
tlers,  has  made  it  impossible  for  us  to  trace  what  would 
have  been  its  development  here  if  the  indigenous  and  ho 
mogeneous  stock  of  its  population  had  been  left  to  itself. 
The  heritage  was  strictly  one  of  Puritanism  for  two  hun 
dred  years.  .The  last  half-century  has  wrought  a  change. 
The  problem  presented  to  those  who  highly  esteem  their 
Puritan  heritage,  and  who  do  not  welcome,  but  endeavor 
peacefully  to  acquiesce  in  the  ascendency  of  these  uncon 
genial  elements,  is,  whether  the  vitality  and  power  of  the 
best  elements  of  Puritanism  can  retain  and  exercise  a 
sway  that  will  neutralize  what  is  hostile,  and  assimilate 
what  is  harmless  and  good,  in  this  infusion  of  foreign 
agencies  and  influences.  What,  then,  are  the  character 
istics  of  those  qualities  and  principles  of  Puritanism  which 
survive  among  us  and  have  retained  their  ancient  virtues  ? 
Some  might  question  whether  there  is  a  survival  of  any 
true  Puritanism  among  us.  But  in  answer  to  this  intima 
tion,  it  might  fairly  be  pleaded  that  any  reductions,  limita 
tions,  and  liberalizings  of  the  spirit  and  usages  of  the  old 
Puritanism,  which  fairly  resulted  from  the  development  of 
its  own  free  principles,  or  from  latent  tendencies  not  at 
first  recognized  in  active  exercise  in  it,  would  still  leave  its 
essential  identity  unimpaired.  The  Puritanism  of  to-day, 
like  that  of  the  Reformation  era,  protests  against  and  re 
jects  the  whole  spirit  of  medievalism,  all  class  distinc 
tions  and  privileges  founded  on  prerogative  and  artificial 
rank,  and  all  the  assumptions  and  tyranny  of  ecclesias- 
ticism  and  sacerdotalism.  The  leaven  introduced  by  Mas- 

35 


546  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

sachusetts  Puritanism  has  proved  the  most  effective  of  all 
agencies  in  excluding  those  once  supremely  potent  influ 
ences  from  the  portion  of  this  new  continent  governed  by 
the  organic  and  constitutional  laws  of  our  nation,  distin 
guishing  it  in  these  respects  from  most  of  the  other  gov 
ernments  of  Christendom.  What  Puritanism  did  not 
originally  bring  here  of  the  full  energy  of  these  principles, 
has  been  wrought  out  by  its  own  earliest  provisions  for 
popular  education  and  for  individual  independence,  and 
the  rights  of  each  for  self-government.  Even  that  element 
in  the  early  Puritan  legislation  and  administration  which, 
in  all  the  criticisms  upon  them,  ranging  from  grave  dis 
cussions  and  objections  down  to  satirical  and  contemp 
tuous  reflections,  has  received  the  severest  condemnation, 
has  been  most  strangely  misconceived  and  misrepresented. 
That  element,  as  assumed,  was  the  supreme  sway  by  dicta 
tion  and  authority  of  the  clerical  order.  The  elders  are 
alleged  to  have  been  the  legislators  and  rulers  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  theocracy.  If  what  has  been  set  forth  from  our 
most  authentic  and  instructive  records  as  defining  the  real 
position,  agency,  and  influence  of  those  elders  does  not 
fully  expose  the  error  of  that  assumption,  I  have  no  dis 
position  or  purpose  to  challenge  it  any  further.  In  a  Bibli 
cal  commonwealth,  whose  magistrates  were  the  "  Ministers 
of  God,"  it  was  but  natural  that  the  religious  teachers,  the 
expounders  of  the  Scriptures  through  their  special  learning 
and  knowledge,  should  be  consulted  by  those  magistrates, 
and  that  so  far  as  they  could  throw  light  upon  any  ques 
tion  submitted  to  them,  their  word  should  have  weight. 
From  first  to  last,  the  Puritan  elders  had  no  other  author 
ity  or  influence  than  this.  The  Protestant  clergy,  who 
succeed  them  now  all  over  this  country,  have  precisely  the 
same  sort  of  authority  and  influence,  —  subject  only  to 
the  essential  qualification  that  the  civil  government  and 
the  people  do  not  accept  the  Bible  as  the  statute-book,  and 
so  do  not  depend  upon  clerical  help  for  its  interpretation. 


DOWNFALL  OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  547 

The  respect  and  deference  paid  to  these  early  elders  was 
secured  by  them  through  their  character  and  abilities.  It 
was  solely  by  these  that  they  were  put  into  office ;  and  the 
functions  of  that  office,  with  its  privileges,  were  rigidly 
conditioned  upon  those  qualities  in  the  men.  Great  as 
their  influence  was  among  a  people  so  much  of  whose  life 
and  thought  were  engaged  with  religion,  it  cannot  even 
then  be  called  professional  or  official,  and  it  was  as  remote 
as  are  the  poles  from  including  anything  of  a  priestly  or 
sacerdotal  character.  There  was  a  radical  and  a  world 
wide  difference  between  a  Puritan  elder,  "  a  minister  of 
God's  word,"  and  every  claimant  of  a  priestly  prerogative, 
Papal  or  Protestant.  The  minister  was  but  the  mouth 
piece  of  an  assembly  in  pronouncing  a  sentence  of  admo 
nition  or  excommunication.  He  repudiated  the  priestly 
pretence  that  the  benefit  or  efficacy  of  a  sacrament  de 
pended  upon  the  official  character  of  the  administrant  of 
it.  He  denied  that  anything  lie  might  do  or  leave  un 
done,  anything  he  could  say  or  leave  unsaid,  of  blessing  or 
cursing,  would  affect  the  relation  between  a  human  being 
and  his  Judge.  He  was  himself  utterly  powerless,  indi 
vidually,  to  impose  sentence  or  judgment.  He  had  no 
right  to  demand  that  confession  should  be  made  to  him, 
nor  would  he  venture  to  offer  absolution.  Had  an  in 
stance  ever  presented  itself  in  which  a  Puritan  elder  had 
presumed,  standing  by  the  death-bed  of  a  sinner,  to  deny 
to  him  prayer  and  mercy,  to  inflict  on  him  the  curses  of 
sacerdotalism,  and  to  interdict  him  the  hope  of  Divine 
grace  and  forgiveness,  that  elder  would  have  come  under 
civil  process,  and  been  made  to  smart  for  his  offence. 

So  we  may  easily  trace  down  from  the  Puritan  elder  the 
succession  in  position  and  influence  of  the  clerical  order 
all  over  our  land,  as  well  as  in  this  commonwealth,  save  as 
new  influences  have  come  in  with  imported  foreign  ele 
ments,  which  the  Puritans  had  discredited  and  left  behind 
them.  When  the  Colony  Charter  was  outlawed,  the  King 


548  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

did  not  impose  upon  Massachusetts  the  institution,  disci 
pline,  and  ritual  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  he  simply 
enjoined  that  all  of  his  subjects  who  desired  to  do  so 
should  be  free  to  engage  in  its  communion  and  worship, 
without  prejudice  to  their  civil  rights.  Substantially 
under  the  form  of  government  substituted  for  the  colo 
nial,  what  is  called  the  voluntary  system  in  religion  re 
ceived  its  sanction.  This  system,  imposed  on  provincial 
Massachusetts  by  authority  from  without,  and  afterward 
adopted  and  approved  by  independent  State  legislation 
from  within,  has  resulted,  by  the  development  of  time, 
experience,  and  the  progress  of  practical  wisdom,  in  the 
complete  divorce  of  Church  and  State.  The  voluminous 
pages  of  our  statutes,  showing  the  processes  by  which  that 
result  has  been  reached,  are  interesting  and  instructive. 
The  old,  rigid,  compulsory  legislation  for  religion  slowly 
lingered  in  its  traditional  hold  upon  the  community, 
bracing  itself  for  a  time  on  the  plea  of  its  necessity  to 
sustain  civil  order  and  to  promote  good  morals.  Having 
once  required  that  all  the  people  should  be  taxed  for  and 
should  respect  the  ministry  and  dispensation  of  religion 
under  one  and  the  same  form,  it  paused  awhile  on  the  com 
promise  of  freedom  to  support  any  preferred  form,  pro 
vided  that  it  were  some  ministration  respectably  recognized. 
Then,  within  the  lifetime  of  those  now  on  the  stage,  the 
citizen  received  full  freedom,  in  thought,  observance,  and 
purse,  to  look  upward  and  inward  for  his  religion.  Such 
would  long  since  have  been  the  result  in  the  mother  coun 
try,  had  the  principles  of  Nonconformity  prevailed  there. 
Meanwhile  the  clergy  in  Massachusetts  retain  and  exercise 
all  that  was  best,  or  only  good,  in  the  influence  of  their 
Puritan  predecessors.  Character  and  abilities  are  still  the 
conditions  of  their  accepted  service,  while  their  official 
prestige  is  a  nullity.  True,  our  modern  elders  are  not 
called  in  to  "  advise  "  the  magistrates  ;  but  they  find  their 
representatives  as  chaplains  and  members  in  the  legis- 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   COLONY   CHARTER.  549 

lature,  in  constitutional  conventions  and  in  electoral  col 
leges,  and  in  the  opening  of  civil  courts  and  the  inaugura 
tion  of  municipal  governments. 

The  natural  and  logical  results  of  the  independency  and 
of  the  educational  institutions  of  our  old  Puritanism  have 
wrought  in  two  opposite  directions.  One  of  these  has 
been  in  the  extremes  of  individualism,  with  every  form  of 
dissent,  variance,  and  freedom  in  belief  and  speculation : 
the  other  is  in  a  reversion,  a  looking  back  for  mental -peace 
and  spiritual  resource  to  ancient  beliefs  and  sanctities  of 
observance.  There  are  those,  even  of  Puritan  lineage, 
though  with  adopted  views  alien  from  their  inheritance, 
who  view  this  fragmentary,  scattering  division  of  what 
they  believe  should  be  one  fold  of  inclusive  discipleship 
as,  to  use  their  own  term  for  it,  a  "  scandal  "  to  all  "  who 
profess  and  call  themselves  Christians."  Reference  has 
been  made  in  an  earlier  page  to  a  kindly  intended,  how 
ever  hopefully  advised,  scheme  proposed  by  some  of  these 
for  a  reconciling  process  in  the  interest  of  what  they  sup 
pose  to  be  implied  by  "  Christian  unity."  The  last  cen 
sus  gives  us  rather  more  than  three  thousand  clergy  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  denomination  owing  "canonical  obe 
dience  "  to  some  fifty  "  bishops."  The  proposition  is,  that 
the  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  other  ministers  of  the  vari 
ous  Protestant  denominations  should  go  to  those  bishops 
to  receive  from  their  hands  the  tactual  impress  which 
shall  convey  to  them  the  sacramental  grace,  "  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  the  power  to  exercise  "  a  valid  min 
istry."  Those  who  are  now  in  life  may  not  expect  to 
see  that  exorbitant  proposition  accepted.  Some  of  these 
bishops  are  the  sons,  or  from  the  families,  of  reverend 
men,  who  fulfilled  a  faithful  ministry  without  this  "  sacra 
mental  grace."  It  is  conceivable  that  one  or  more  of 
these  elders  might  have  survived  to  find  their  sons  in 
vested  with  the  prelatical  office.  Then  it  would  have  been 
a  spectacle  to  see  the  aged  parents  kneeling  before  their 


550  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

children  to  have  a  defect  in  their  official  ministry  supplied. 
Yet  the  Episcopal  denomination  may  naturally  make  the 
most  of  what  is  substantially  its  only  distinguishing  claim. 
Our  Protestant  bishops  are  but  the  shadows  of  English 
prelates,  and  for  the  rest  their  fellowship  has  yielded  to 
the  modified  Puritan  Congregationalism.  No  patron,  not 
even  a  bishop,  has  "  the  right  of  presentation  "  to  a  parish. 
Each  congregation  has  an  independent  action  in  the  choice, 
the  tenure  of  office,  and  the  removal  of  its  minister.  The 
laity  divide  with  the  clergy  all  the  business  of  its  conven 
tions.  It  may  be  well  also  that  if,  in  the  one  Christian 
Church  represented  in  our  country  by  so  many  branches 
and  twigs,  there  is  an  exclusive  claim  to  the  vital  sap,  there 
should  be  a  rivalry  among  the  claimants.  So  as  the  old 
sacerdotalism  in  its  full  vigor  has  been  imported  into  our 
country,  reduced  manifestations  of  it  may  serve  as  checks 
and  safety-valves. 

But  this  reversion  to  the  spirit  and  practice  of  the  old 
sacerdotalism  will  turn  the  thoughts  of  many  serious  and 
earnest  persons  of  kindly  and  generous  breadth  of  spirit 
to  quite  a  different  conception  of  "  Christian  unity  "  than 
that  of  an  organic  ticketing  and  labelling  by  one  official 
mark  of  those  who  may  partake  of  "  one  spirit "  under 
so  "  diverse  operations  and  manifestations."  The  pre 
ceding  pages  have  shown  us  how  men  and  women, 
profoundly  and  intently  exalting  religious  belief  and  ob 
servance  into  the  all-absorbing  interest  of  their  life,  ex 
ceptionally  pure  in  morals  and  habits,  and  with  kindly 
hearts  and  helping  hands  in  all  neighborly  offices,  well- 
nigh  made  a  pandemonium  of  a  little  struggling  town 
on  the  edge  of  a  wilderness.  It  was  all  because,  instead 
of  being  drawn  into  unity  by  the  like  virtues  and  graces 
just  recognized  in  them,  they  thought  they  ought  all  to 
believe  together,  or  to  quarrel  together,  on  a  few  points 
of  belief  or  observance  which  differently  engaged  their 
consciences  or  judgments.  And  such  will  ever  be  the 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE    COLONY   CHARTER.  551 

result  —  though  never  again  with  legal  penalties  of  fine, 
banishment,  the  prison,  and  the  gallows  —  of  all  attempts 
to  force  doctrinal  or  ritual  observances  upon  men  and 
women  of  intelligent  minds,  whose  proclivities,  tem 
peraments,  tastes,  ranges  of  thought,  imagination,  and 
fancy  decide  for  them  their  preferences  among  all  the 
phases  of  truth  and  the  attitudes  and  reverences  of  faith 
and  worship. 

We  have  well  learned,  or  ought  to  have  learned,  the 
lesson  that  inborn  or  inherited  qualities,  tastes,  and  tem 
peraments,  with  differences  of  strength,  freedom,  and  con 
fidence  in  the  exercise  of  the  intellectual  powers,  courage 
or  fear  in  trusting  to  the  ventures  of  inquisitive  reason, 
and  facility  or  difficulty  in  the  tendencies  of  the  believing 
faculty,  will  inevitably  result  in  wide  divergences  in  all 
that  concerns  religious  belief  and  observance.  The  ritual 
istic  temperament  and  the  Quaker  temperament  are  still 
reproduced  in  living  generations.  As  Sewall  has  told  us, 
poor  Mrs.  Randolph,  in  her  drear  and  cold  surroundings  in 
the  South  Meeting-house,  amid  the  bare  rigidity  of  its  ser 
vices,  took  a  gleam  of  satisfaction  in  courtesying  at  the 
name  of  Jesus  in  the  elder's  prayer.  It  was  on  Christ 
mas  day,  which  passed  wholly  without  recognition.  She 
missed  all  that  was  dear  and  wonted  to  her  in  her  sweet 
method  of  devotion.  One  of  inborn  Quaker  temperament, 
attending  upon  a  modern  ritualistic  service,  with  his  free 
and  restless  spirit,  would  see  only  what  was  formal  and 
mechanical  —  he  might  even  pronounce  it  lackadaisical  — 
in  the  changing  of  attitudes,  the  intervals  of  silence,  the 
responses  of  the  worshippers,  and  the  gliding  of  surpliced 
priests  across  the  chancel,  one  after  another,  to  divide  be 
tween  them  the  sentences  and  paragraphs  of  prayer,  col 
lect,  lesson,  Gospel,  and  Epistle.  The  Quaker's  questions 
would  be,  Might  not  one  do  all  this  without  distraction  or 
parade  ?  Does  this  formality  look  toward  God,  or  men  ? 

The  early  colonists  of  Virginia,  such  as  they  were,  with 


552  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

no  Puritanical  scruples,  used  the  service-book  of  the  Eng 
lish  Church,  constraints  and  punishments  no  less  severe 
than  those  in  force  in  Massachusetts  being  used  to  compel 
attendance.  Our  Puritans,  leaving  that  book  behind  them, 
and  becoming  wonted  to  their  different  worship,  worked 
themselves  up  to  a  disesteem  arid  contempt  of  it  which  led 
them  to  forbid  its  use.  A  strange  exhibition  of  erratic 
human  nature  !  Yet  their  own  way  was  wisely  conformed 
to  their  needs  and  exigencies.  Many  of  those  who  have 
been  trained  by  a  liturgical  service  connect  with  it  the 
fondest,  tenderest  attachments,  and  would  be  desolate 
without  it.  Those  who  know  the  service  only  by  occa 
sional  observance  are  perhaps  the  most  impartial  in  their 
judgment  of  its  use  and  sufficiency.  They  appreciate  its 
richness  and  beauty  of  tone,  sentiment,  and  language,  its 
calm  dignity  and  its  devoutness  of  spirit,  and  the  compass 
of  its  devotional  range  and  expression.  But  the  Puritan 
estimate,  free  of  their  grievance  about  it,  is  still  enter 
tained,  and  with  reasons  for  it.  The  formal,  unvaried 
service  finds  its  fit  and  helpful  use  in  the  placid  routine 
of  life,  in  the  orderly  refinements  and  dignities  and  comfort 
of  settled  times.  But  as  the  Puritans  found  it,  it  seems 
painfully  inadequate  in  critical  and  distracting  experiences, 
where  spontaneity,  fervor,  and  yearning  sympathies  be 
tween  men  and  women,  and  between  men  and  women  in 
their  seeking  for  God,  crave  the  familiarity  of  unstudied 
utterance.  One  of  the  most  objectionable  elements  of  the 
Book  Service  to  those  who  occasionally  participate  in  it  is 
the  blind  and  superstitious  reading  by  rote  the  whole  of  the 
Book  of  Psalms.  Why,  because  in  that  strangely  miscel 
laneous  gathering  of  psalmody  there  are  strains  of  most 
sublime  and  tender  devotion,  the  very  anthems  and  raptures 
of  piety,  should  the  whole  of  it  be  held  sacred?  There 
can  be  no  edifying  nutriment  for  heart  or  mind  in  its 
obscure,  meaningless,  and  heathen  ingredients,  its  un 
christian,  vindictive,  and  imprecatory  contents. 


DOWNFALL   OP   THE   COLONY    CHARTER.  553 

Our  narration  began  with  the  strong  and  passionate 
assertion  of  the  spirit  of  Nonconformity,  against  principles 
and  usages  of  human  device  and  imposition,  in  religion. 
That  spirit  drove  those  whom  it  mastered  into  exile  in  the 
wilderness,  that  they  might  make  trial  of  methods  which 
their  consciences  constrained  them  to  follow.  Our  narra 
tion  closes  with  the  enforced  teaching  to  those  exiles  of  some 
further  lessons,  in  the  impracticability  and  wrong  of  their 
own  imposed  Conformity.  The  struggle  that  advanced  here 
was  but  another  phase  of  the  issue  opened  in  England  at 
the  Reformation  between  the  obedience  which  was  enjoined 
as  of  divine  right,  and  the  freedom  that  was  claimed  as  of 
human  right.  Only  here  the  claim  was  shifted  from  an 
appeal  to  divine  right  as  set  forth  by  a  Church  to  the  au 
thority  found  for  it  in  a  Holy  Book.  So  I  have  ventured 
on  a  previous  page  to  state  as  one  of  the  results  of  the 
failure  on  trial  of  a  Biblical  commonwealth  here  the  de 
monstration  of  a  truth  which  will  startle  and  offend  some 
persons,  and  which  therefore  I  hope  may  not  be  misin 
terpreted.  That  demonstrated  truth  I  understand  to  be, 
that  no  organic  form  of  civil  government  and  administra 
tion  can  wisely  or  safely  base  itself  on  religion,  unless  it 
may  be  that  religion  be  taken  in  the  broadest  and  vaguest 
sense  which  it  might  have  in  an  infinite  diversity  of  inter 
pretations.  By  this  is  meant  that  statutes  and  laws  must 
be  content  with  claiming  only  a  human  and  mundane  au 
thority.  Behind  their  wholly  secular  phrasing  and  defining 
there  may  be  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  those  who  enact 
them,  and  of  those  held  in  obedience  to  them,  any  degree 
and  amount  —  and  the  more  the  better  —  of  a  reference  to 
an  assumption  and  belief  of  a  divine  sanction  for  them.  It 
would  have  been  well  for  all  Christendom  had  it  always 
proved  true  that  "  rulers  are  ministers  of  God  for  good." 
But  experience  has  compelled  us  to  interpret  the  asser 
tion  as  meaning  that  it  is  intended,  or  desired,  or  fit 
ting,  that  rulers  should  be  such  representatives  of  Deity. 


654  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

The  rulers  of  Massachusetts,  like  so  many  others,  fell 
short  of  this  lofty  ideal.  And  now,  as  taught  by  expe 
rience,  we  have  learned  that  not  "  Moses  his  Judicials," 
nor  even  the  "  Precepts  of  Jesus  Christ,"  can  be  enacted 
or  enforced  in  civil  government.  And  this  for  two  rea 
sons,  if  for  no  other,  —  that  those  who  are  to  be  gov 
erned,  or  to  govern  themselves,  are  not  agreed  as  to 
the  authority  of  those  religious  codes ;  and  that  those 
who  own  that  authority  differ  most  widely  in  interpret 
ing  them.  Laws  to  be  compulsory  in  their  authority,  and 
to  be  enforced  by  penalties,  must  confine  themselves  to 
secular  interests  and  sanctions.  It  is  the  province  of  re 
ligion  to  do  its  work  on  the  purposes,  motives,  and  judg 
ment  of  those  who  make  the  laws,  that  they  may  be  just 
and  reasonable,  and  to  induce  obedience  to  them. 

The  whole  tendency  of  all  the  free,  vitalized,  earnest,  and 
unchallengeable  working  of  thought,  speculation,  and  fancy 
now  is  to  promote  individualism  and  independence  in  the 
full  range  of  matters  in  which  uniformity  or  unity  was 
once  demanded  and  enforced  by  penalties.  The  thousand 
little  rills  and  streams  of  thought  and  belief  which  once 
served  for  isolated  communions  and  sects,  have  found  their 
way  to  rivers  which  lead  on  to  the  ocean,  where  navigation 
is  no  longer  by  landmarks,  but  by  the  piloting  of  the  open 
heavens.  Meanwhile  that  this  disintegration  and  individ 
uality  in  religion  are  rendering  chimerical  any  fond  scheme 
for  restoring  an  "  organic  unity  "  in  belief  and  observance, 
the  spirit  of  a  broad  and  sympathetic  humanity  in  its  mani 
fold  workings,  in  all  its  agencies  of  reform,  renewal,  re 
dress,  purification,  and  benevolence,  is  drawing  human 
hearts  to  a  unity  which  human  intellects  will  never 
realize.  The  noblest  service  done  by  the  Quakers  was  in 
demanding  recognition  for  some  of  the  most  vital  and 
benedictive  forces  of  the  Christian  religion  which  were 
latent  in  it  but  unrecognized.  There  are  more  such  in 
spirations  which  are  finding  their  prophets  and  mis- 


DOWNFALL    OF   THE    COLONY    CHARTER.  555 

sionaries.  Among  them  is  one  presenting  to  us  in  the 
Gospel  record  the  sublimest  figure  of  impersonation  to 
be  found  in  all  literature,  where  the  great  Teacher, 
"  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,"  seated  upon  "  the 
throne  of  his  glory,"  dispenses  eternal  allotments,  not  for 
beliefs  or  conformities,  but  according  as  humanity  in  its 
woes  and  straits  and  needs  has  or  has  not  been  minis 
tered  to. 


NOTE  ON  THE  "SALEM  WITCHCRAFT." 

THE  limitations  of  time  and  of  subject-matter  proposed  for 
rehearsal  in  this  volume  would  not  have  required  any  reference 
to  the  tragic  and  appalling  incidents  through  a  portion  of  a  single 
year,  in  one  of  our  villages,  which  have  passed  down  into  history 
under  the  darkest  shadows  of  our  first  century.  The  trials  and 
executions  for  alleged  witchcraft  in  Salem,  in  1692,  have  no  direct 
connection  with  the  theocratic  government  of  Massachusetts,  nor 
with  anything  special  or  peculiar  in  the  characteristics  and  legis 
lation  of  the  Puritan  colony.  The  loss  of  its  first  Charter  had, 
after  a  troubled,  unsettled,  and  revolutionary  interval  of  some 
seven  years,  found  the  former  Colony  a  province  of  Great  Britain. 
Under  its  new  Charter  the  people  were  deprived  of  the  right  of 
self-government.  It  was  under  the  administration  of  the  first 
of  the  provincial  governors,  and  by  a  special  court  appointed  by 
him,  the  legality  of  which  has  always  been  questioned,  that  those 
trials  and  executions,  under  the  dismay  of  a  sporadic  delusion  and 
frenzy,  visited  their  sad  experiences  upon  some  twenty  victims. 
The  Governor,  a  rough  and  illiterate,  though  a  marvellously  for 
tunate,  adventurer,  with  not  so  much  knowledge  of  affairs  of  civil 
government  as  he  had  of  astronomy,  —  for  he  was  a  good  navi 
gator,  —  had  just  acceded  to  office,  through  luck  and  favoritism. 
The  exercise  of  sound  discretion  and  decided  caution  in  him  might 
have  smothered  the  frenzy  at  its  outburst  ;  but  having  allowed 
the  spark  to  kindle,  he  left  the  province  temporarily  on  official 
business,  and  on  his  return  put  an  arrest  upon  the  dreadful  pro 
ceedings,  seemingly  moved  to  interpose  chiefly  because  his  own 
wife  had  been  "  cried  out  upon "  as  one  of  the  culprits.  The 
reference  which  I  shall  make  to  this  direful  subject  will  be  brief. 
Indeed,  I  should  have  wholly  passed  it  by,  were  it  not  that  I  find 
in  it  a  very  striking  illustration  of  the  strange  and  perverse  way, 
the  crookedness  of  opinion,  and  the  falsity  of  judgment  with  which 


NOTE   ON  THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.  557 

many  matters  of  early  Massachusetts  history  have  been  treated 
by  sciolists,  by  very  ignorant  and  superficial  critics,  and  by  some 
uncandid,  not  to  say  ill-tempered  commentators.  What  passes  for 
history,  and  what  serves  for  many  keen  gibes  of  reproach  in  tra 
dition  and  popular  amusement,  have  found  material  for  a  revel 
of  license  in  dealing  with  the  theme  of  Salem  witchcraft. 

No  one  would  be  moved  to  put  in  a  plea  or  to  raise  a  protest  in 
dealing  with  this  subject  on  any  such  ground  as  that  of  misstate- 
ment,  exaggeration,  or  over-darkening  of  the  cruel  and  iniquitous 
proceedings  at  Salem  under  the  delusions  and  frenzies  of  a  panic. 
The  veritable  history  of  the  event  and  its  incidents  is  unrelievable 
in  its  horrors.  Whenever  reader  or  historian,  moved  by  a  sense 
of  painful  interest  or  duty,  acquaints  himself  with  the  facts  of  the 
case  and  brings  before  him  the  pangs  and  woes  of  innocent  vic 
tims,  there  is  no  occasion  for  stirring  him  to  indignation  against 
the  actors,  or  to  sympathy  with  the  sufferers  ;  and  he  may  even 
feel  the  risings  of  a  desire  to  visit  some  post-mortem  penalties 
upon  the  prime  wrong-doers.  There  is  no  need  of  retelling  the 
story  to  reduce  its  distressing  melancholy,  nor  to  lighten  the  bur 
den  of  reproach  and  condemnation  which  must  rest  somewhere  and 
upon  some  agents  in  those  harrowing  incidents.  But  there  is  one 
signal  wrong  and  error  connected  with  many  rehearsals  of  the  story, 
for  a  participation  in  which  those  who  are  either  with  or  without 
the  candor  or  the  information  requisite  in  such  a  case  are  justly 
to  be  rebuked.  This  censure  is  deserved  by  all  those  who  speak 
of  Salem  witchcraft  as  if  it  were  a  special,  peculiar,  and  unique 
product  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy,  the  flowering  out  and  full 
fruitage  of  Puritanism.  The  delusions  and  atrocities  connected 
with  that  distressing  episode  in  our  history  had  no  relation  what 
ever  to  the  distinctive  qualities  of  Puritanism,  but  involved  in  a 
common  share  in  superstitions  and  cruelties  all  classes  and  ranks 
of  men  and  women,  of  every  party  in  religion,  Papal  or  Protes 
tant,  and  of  no  religion.  Philosophers  and  physicians,  popes, 
prelates,  divines,  statesmen,  judges,  and  monarchs,  were  in  full 
harmony  of  belief  all  over  Christendom  with  those  who  were 
parties  to  what  transpired  amid  the  forests  and  the  clearings  of  a 
farming  village  in  New  England. 

A  thought  and  suggestion  have  come  to  my  own  mind  in  reflect- 


558  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

ing  upon  this  repulsive  subject,  which  I  have  never  found  to 
be  expressed  or  intimated  by  any  who  has  written  upon  it.  It 
seems  to  me  so  natural  and  obvious  that  I  will  venture  to  utter  it. 
It  is  this.  Taking  into  view  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  of  the 
case,  Massachusetts  may  be  regarded  as  having  been  most  marvel 
lously  and  propitiously,  we  may  even  say  with  partiality  and 
favoritism,  dealt  with  in  the  apportionment  to  her  of  so  small  a 
share  in  the  horrors  of  a  world-wide  and  cruel  superstition.  One 
who  has  been  at  pains  to  inform  himself,  in  particulars  and  details, 
concerning  the  peculiar  conditions  and  experiences  of  private, 
domestic,  and  social  life  in  the  Massachusetts  towns  during  our 
first  century,  will,  I  am  persuaded,  find  much  reason  for  wonder, 
congratulation,  and  even  boastfulness,  that  while  this  Colony,  as 
was  inevitable,  caught  from  the  Old  World  a  spark  from  the  uni 
versal  combustion  working  there  at  that  period,  the  flame  was  so 
confined  in  space,  and  so  restricted  in  time,  when  it  broke  out  here. 
Most  merciful  and  lenient  was  the  visitation  upon  Massachusetts 
of  the  delusion  which  so  ravaged  with  barbarous  and  revolting  in 
humanity  nearly  every  scene  of  human  life  in  the  mother  country. 
For  myself,  I  am  deeply  impressed  by  the  contrast  between  what 
was  realized  and  what  might  most  naturally  have  been  experienced 
here.  Consider  the  circumstances  and  conditions  of  life  in  our 
early  rural  settlements,  and  the  marvel  will  be  that  witchcraft 
was  not  an  universal,  indigenous,  inveterate,  and  chronic  infliction 
in  every  one  of  them.  There  was  in  each  of  them  solitariness 
and  isolation,  sharp  deprivation,  and  hard  experience.  There  were 
lonely  hours  for  individuals,  for  much  brooding  over  a  limited 
range  of  thoughts.  The  scenes  of  Nature  around  were  full  of 
gloom.  The  rigors  of  winter  were  stern  and  of  long  duration. 
The  woods  were  filled  with  savage  forms,  whom  many  regarded  as 
imps  and  agents  of  the  Evil  One,  and  who  were  believed  to  be, 
through  the  Powwows  and  sorcerers,  his  worshippers.  There 
were  no  means  and  no  allowance  for  relaxation,  amusement,  or 
jollity.  The  lines  of  a  familiar  modern  hymn,  — 

"  Religion  never  was  designed 
To  make  our  pleasures  less,"  — 

had  not  then  been  sung,  and  the  pleasurable  quality  of  Puritanism 
was  not  presented  in  prayer,  sermon,  or  psalmody.  Under  these 


NOTE   ON   THE    SALEM    WITCHCRAFT.  559 

circumstances  one  might  have  expected  to  find  a  widely  extended, 
and  as  I  have  said,  a  chronic  presence  of  the  phenomena  of 
witchcraft.  We  might  have  come  to  take  it  as  a  matter  of  course 
that  each  of  our  many  scores  of  town  histories  should  have  de 
voted  an  early  chapter  to  the  cases  of  witchcraft  that  had  been 
noted  and  dealt  with  in  it,  the  names  of  culprits,  and  the  death 
penalties.  If  the  history  of  every  town  in  England  and  Scotland, 
to  say  nothing  of  those  on  the  Continent,  had  been  written  with 
the  same  minuteness  of  detail,  the  exceptions  would  have  been 
very  rare  to  the  universal  recognition  of  the  presence  of  witch 
craft,  and  the  atrocious  proceedings  against  the  victims  of  the 
delusion.  The  number  of  such  victims  on  the  records  of  those  two 
countries  exceed  thirty  thousand,  and,  taking  those  on  the  Conti 
nent  into  the  count,  run  up  into  hundreds  of  thousands ;  and  the 
delusion  with  the  woful  and  appalling  frenzies,  panics,  and  judi 
cial  cruelties  which  it  involved  held  its  terrible  sway  for  several 
centuries.  Sir  William  Blackstone  gave  his  full  countenance  to 
the  reality  of  witchcraft  seventy  years  after  the  Salem  tragedies 
had  closed,  and  the  statutes  of  England  still  recognized  it  as  a 
punishable  crime. 

All  the  circumstances  and  conditions  which  furnished  the  phe 
nomena  of  reputed  witchcraft  in  the  towns,  villages,  and  hamlets  of 
England  and  Scotland  might  well  have  been  supposed  to  present 
themselves  in  Massachusetts.  A  lonely,  deformed,  or  ill-favored 
old  woman,  unwedded,  sour  and  woe-begone  by  some  bitterness  in 
her  lot,  might  here  as  well  as  there  have  cast  an  "  evil  eye  "  or 
muttered  a  malediction  which  caused  a  neighbor's  cow  to  cast  her 
calf,  or  the  dough  in  the  kneading-pan  to  lose  its  sweetness,  or 
one  of  a  hundred  mishaps  and  maladies  to  fall  upon  any  one  of 
those  whom  she  envied  or  hated.  The  gossip  of  neighbors,  helped 
by  credulity  and  dreary  superstitions,  would  readily  catch  and  in 
tensify  the  rumor  of  such  malignant  influences.  All  mysterious 
and  startling  events,  the  repetition  and  succession  of  calamities  in 
one  household  or  community,  infelicities  of  domestic  life,  accidents 
and  portents,  which  furnished  the  accusation  of  demoniac  spells 
all  over  the  homes  of  Europe,  might  have  found  their  material  and 
opportunity  in  every  village  of  Massachusetts.  Everywhere  in 
Europe  the  tests,  the  kind  of  evidence  required,  the  modes  of  pro- 


560  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

ceeding  for  dealing  with  witchcraft,  and  the  judicial  processes  and 
shocking  tortures  and  executions  were  always  kept  in  ready  and 
efficient  use.  How  was  it  that  Massachusetts  was  to  such  an 
extent  and  degree  delivered  from  a  full  proportionate  share  in  such 
horrors  ?  The  question  is  really  worth  pausing  upon.  Should  we 
not  refer  the  exemption  of  our  towns  to  such  an  exceptional  extent 
to  the  kindly  neighborly  relations,  the  sympathetic  ties,  the  mutual 
interest,  confidence,  and  helpfulness  of  the  people  ?  There  were 
unfortunate  persons,  men  and  women,  deformed,  ill-tempered,  un 
lovable,  half-witted  specimens  of  humanity  in  most  of  these  towns, 
but  they  were  commiserated  or  borne  with  perhaps  even  more 
tolerantly  than  often  in  these  days. 

In  view,  then,  of  \vhat  might  have  been,  and  what  the  people  of 
our  first  century  would  have  regarded  only  as  their  share  in  a  uni 
versal  exposure  to  the  wiles  and  machinations  of  the  Evil  One,  the 
tragic  events  which  transpired  in  Salem  Village  ought  not  to  be 
rehearsed  in  historical  relation,  as  they  too  often  have  been,  as  a 
signal  monstrosity  of  Massachusetts  Puritanism.  Everything  that 
occurred  there  in  the  paroxysm  of  a  panic,  in  outrages  upon  a 
common  humanity,  in  the  alarm  and  consternation  of  a  community, 
in  the  mockery  of  judicial  proceedings,  and  in  the  execution  of 
innocent  victims,  might  be  paralleled  in  every  feature  and  incident 
in  hundreds  of  places  in  the  Old  World.  What  indeed  should 
seem  startling  or  deplorable  that  transpires  when  Satan  is  believed 
to  have  borne  down  upon  a  group  of  households,  putting  his  venom 
and  malignity  into  the  hearts  of  little  children  and  their  parents, 
and  poisoning  the  springs  of  love  and  trust  and  mercy?  Any 
thing  special,  peculiar,  or  intense  in  the  phenomena  of  the  delu 
sion  in  Salem  may  be  considered  as  to  a  degree  offset  by  the  con 
centration  there  alone,  and  within  seven  months  of  a  single  year, 
of  the  share  of  Massachusetts  in  the  visitation  of  a  world-wide 
calamity  which  lingered  in  Europe  long  after  its  terrors  had  ceased 
here. 

There  had  been  four  executions  for  reputed  witchcraft  in  Mas 
sachusetts  previous  to  the  Salem  tragedies.  They  were  those  of 
Margaret  Jones  in  1648,  of  Mary  Parsons  in  1651,  of  Ann  Hib- 
bins  in  1656,  and  of  Goody  Glover  in  1688.  These  cases  in  no 
respects  differed  from  those  common  to  Christendom.  The  ingre- 


NOTE   ON   THE   SALEM    WITCHCRAFT.  561 

clients  mingled  in  the  witches'  caldron  at  Salem  Village  were  of 
the  uncanny  sort  which  needed  only  to  simmer  together,  stirred  by 
malignant  hands,  to  effect  their  baneful  spells.1 

Some  petty  feuds  and  bickerings,  with  gossip  and  grudgings 
between  neighbors  in  a  partially  reclaimed  wilderness  village,  with 
controversies  about  local  rights,  had  prepared  material  for  mischief, 
awaiting  a  provocative  agency  for  fomenting  it.  An  ill-tempered 
and  ill-balanced  minister  in  contention  with  his  flock  which  wished 
to  be  rid  of  him,  though  not  the  prime,  was  a  secondary  agent  in 

1  There  is  no  subject  for  a  monograph  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts 
which  has  been  treated  so  ably,  fully,  and  faithfully  as  has  the  distressing 
delusion  in  Salem,  by  one  remarkably  qualified  with  all  the  faculties,  means, 
and  opportunities  for  obtaining  and  presenting  exhaustive  information  con 
cerning  it.  This  was  the  Rev.  and  Hon.  Charles  W.  Upham.  After  a  score 
of  years  of  service  as  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Salem,  he  resigned  his 
office  on  account  of  the  loss  of  his  voice.  After  a  period  of  rest,  he  continued 
for  thirty  years,  to  the  end  of  his  life  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  labors  as  a  diligent  and  accomplished  scholar,  and  as  an  earnest  and 
patriotic  servant  of  the  public.  He  represented  Salem  three  years  in  our 
Legislature,  was  in  the  State  Senate  three  years,  two  of  them  as  its  president, 
and  a  Representative  in  the  Thirty-third  Congress  of  the  United  States.  He 
was  a  most  honored  citizen  of  Salem,  thoroughly  versed  in  its  history,  proud 
of  the  traditions  of  its  old-time  local  importance  as  the  birthplace  and  home  of 
scholars,  jurists,  and  eminent  merchants,  whose  commerce  was  carried  on  over 
the  whole  world.  He  felt  very  deeply  the  scandalous  injustice  by  which  the 
village  suburb  of  the  town  of  Salem  had  in  reputed  history  been  made  so  sig 
nally  to  bear  the  odium  connected  with  the  witchcraft  delusion,  as  if  its  horrors 
and  tragedies  there  had  not  been  experienced  all  over  Christendom.  It  was 
not  to  clear  or  relieve  the  town  of  the  ill-report  of  what  had  really  transpired 
there  under  the  frenzy  of  a  short-lived  panic,  but  to  expose  the  folly  and 
falsehood  of  the  distinctive  reproach  attached  to  it,  as  if  the  melancholy  detail 
of  what  had  occurred  there  were  not  paralleled  in  every  feature  of  horror  in 
every  country  of  Europe  for  a  period  of  two  centuries.  Thus  he  was  prompted 
to  give  years  of  diligent  study,  research,  and  labor  to  the  preparation  of  his 
profoundly  instructive  work  entitled  "Salem  Witchcraft:  with  an  Account 
of  Salem  Village,  and  a  History  of  Opinions  on  Witchcraft  and  Kindred 
Subjects.''  (Two  Volumes.  Boston,  1867.)  So  thoroughly,  judiciously,  and 
impartially,  and  with  such  wealth  of  learning  and  compass  of  sound  philoso 
phy,  does  the  author  deal  with  his  repulsive  but  compulsory  theme,  that  no 
further  treatment  of  it  is  requisite  or  desirable.  Its  documentary  materials, 
its  local  identifications,  its  minuteness  of  details,  and  the  calm,  candid,  and 
catholic  spirit  in  which  the  work  is  written,  claim  the  gratitude  of  its 

readers. 

36 


562  THE  PURITAN   AGE. 

that  mischief.  He  had  in  his  family  two  native  African  slaves, 
husband  and  wife,  John  and  Tituba,  —  the  latter  a  name  to  conjure 
with,  —  both  skilled  in  the  "sorcery,  necromancy,"  and  supersti 
tions  of  their  race.  A  circle  of  young  girls,  unwatched  and  wilful, 
more  than  one  of  them  depraved,  had  spent  many  dreary  winter 
evenings  at  the  minister's  house  with  his  daughter,  a  child  of  nine 
years.  They  practised  palmistry  and  fortune-telling,  and  seem  to 
have  become  experts  in  some  of  the  tricks  of  the  seances  and 
"  materializations  "  of  our  day,  which  mark  the  donkeydom  or 
asshood  stage  in  our  social  development.  Surprises,  relations,  de 
lusions,  frauds,  minglings  of  audacious  lyings  and  malignity,  were 
all  thrown  into  the  caldron.  Marvels  of  invention  and  exaggera 
tion  were  added,  and  the  report  went  forth  of  "  afflicted  children  " 
pinched  and  tortured  by  invisible  hands.  It  was  not  a  minister, 
but  a  physician,  who  being  called  in  for  advice,  first  spoke  the 
ominous  word  "witchcraft."  The  Evil  Hand,  with  its  demoniac 
cunning  and  its  mocking  triumph  for  a  season  over  all  the  power 
and  resources  of  common  sense,  intelligence,  and  agencies  of  sober 
piety  in  the  little  community,  had  got  the  mastery.  The  conster 
nation  spread  over  an  extending  circle.  Imagination  wrought  in  its 
wildest  license  in  conjuring  spectres  in  homes  and  fields,  in  high 
ways  and  churches,  by  the  table  and  the  bedside.  Satan  had  been 
allowed  for  a  time  to  throw  off  the  shackles  of  his  pit,  and  to  go 
abroad  getting  signatures  of  blood  in  his  book.  Some,  not  always 
weak-minded  persons,  were  so  bereft  of  wit  and  their  real  per 
sonal  consciousness,  as  to  believe  that  they  had  a  duplex  exist 
ence,  and  confessed  to  having  made  covenant  with  the  Devil. 
Circumstances,  scenes,  incidents,  and  the  same  inextricable  inter- 
minglings  of  delusion,  falsehood,  and  malignity  which  characterized 
the  witchcraft  panics  the  world  over,  and  the  same  judicial  pro 
ceedings,  with  a  besotted  contempt  of  all  rules  and  safeguards  in 
receiving  sworn  testimony,  were  repeated  here,  the  judges  and 
courts  following  English  precedents.  The  subject  neither  invites 
nor  demands  further  relation.  The  very  intensity  and  agony 
which  marked  the  spell  of  frenzy  in  this  community,  stamped  out 
the  superstition  and  the  enormities  of  inhumanity  which  en 
shrouded  it  here,  and  gave  us  an  immunity  while  Europe  con 
tinued  under  its  gloom. 


NOTE   ON   THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.  563 

The  dismay  and  insensate  panic  of  this  short-lived  delusion  here 
have  been  often  paralleled  in  all  their  features  at  other  times  and 
in  other  places.  They  were  aggravated  tenfold  in  the  Gunpowder 
and  the  Popish  Plots  in  England.  Incidents  in  our  American  his 
tory  most  nearly  resembling  the  tragic  experiences  in  Salem  are 
the  two  so-called  "  Negro  Plots  "  in  New  York,  occurring  respec 
tively  in  1712  and  1741,  —  the  victims  in  each  of  them  exceeding 
in  number  and  in  the  barbarity  of  the  penalties  and  sufferings 
inflicted  upon  them  the  score  of  those  in  Salem.  The  panics  in 
New  York,  which  well-nigh  crazed  or  paralyzed  the  whole  body 
of  the  citizens,  originated  in  alleged  plots  of  slaves  to  burn  and 
plunder  the  city.  In  1712,  twenty-one  victims  were  executed. 
Some  were  burned  at  the  stake,  one  was  broken  on  the  wheel,  one 
was  hung  in  chains  to  die  of  starvation.  In  the  second  alleged 
plot,  in  1741,  the  Supreme  Court  and  jury,  like  the  people,  seemed 
to  be  swept  and  stunned  as-  by  a  tornado,  from  April  to  October, 
when  a  Thanksgiving  for  relief  was  observed.  One  hundred  and 
fifty  negroes  were  imprisoned,  fourteen  were  burned  at  the  stake, 
eighteen  were  hanged,  two  were  gibbeted,  and  seventy-one  were 
transported.  Four  white  men  were  executed.  In  New  York,  as 
in  Salem,  the  first  alarm  came  from  a  lying  and  perjured  girl,  and 
a  minister  of  religion,  wholly  innocent,  was  among  the  victims. 
Satan  was  outdone  in  his  demoniac  rage  in  Salem  by  a  more 
effective  human  diabolism  in  New  York. 

But  while,  as  has  here  been  strongly  affirmed,  allowing  for 
the  unique  conditions  and  circumstances  of  a  neighborhood  of 
farmers  in  rude  and  simple  times,  there  was  nothing  at  all  dis 
tinctive  or  peculiar  in  the  share  visited  upon  Salem  Village  of  its 
dismal  experience  in  the  universal  delusion  of  witchcraft,  there  are 
three  facts  connected  with  the  harrowing  subject  which  deserve 
emphatic  mention.  They  present  themselves  as  cheering,  though 
not  atoning  for,  the  wrongs  and  miseries  of  the  experience  when 
time,  with  its  compunctions  and  regrets,  had  led  to  a  waking  peni 
tential  retrospect  of  the  nightmare  visitation.  That  waking  ex 
cited  sentiments  tenderly  and  poignantly  melancholy  and  self- 
accusatory. 

Four  years  after  that  in  which  dismay  and  frenzy  had  done 
their  cruel  work,  the  whole  community  was  exercised  by  a  pro- 


564  THE   PURITAN   AGE. 

found  sorrow,  a  conviction  that  an  irreparable  injustice  had  been 
done,  which  had  violated  and  tortured  the  most  sacred  affections  of 
private  hearts  and  homes.  The  names  of  innocent  sufferers  were 
recalled  with  unavailing  pity,  when  locked  and  troubled  breasts 
ventured  to  break  an  ominous  silence,  which  could  not  bring 
oblivion.  It  was  the  well-nigh  universal  sentiment  that  the  whole 
community  should  join  in  a  public  expression  of  humiliation  and 
penitence.  So  a  day  was  set  apart  for  solemn  fasting  and  confes 
sion  in  homes  and  meeting-houses.  The  occasion  was  made  deeply 
impressive  when  one  of  the  judges  in  the  trials  rose  and  stood  in 
his  place  in  the  sanctuary  while  the  minister  read  aloud  a  note 
which  he  had  handed  to  him,  asking  that  in  the  general  prayer  his 
own  individual  petition  be  offered,  imploring  forgiveness  for  the 
wrong  which  he  had  personally  committed  in  his  high  office. 
His  prayer  was  that  his  error  might  not  be  divinely  visited  upon 
him,  his  family,  nor  the  public. 

A  third  incident,  intended  to  give  expression  to  this  general 
penitence  and  commiseration,  was  the  distribution  from  the  public 
treasury  of  considerable  sums,  in  compensatory  allotments,  wholly 
inadequate,  indeed,  but  kindly  designed,  to  the  representatives  of 
some  of  the  sufferers  from  losses,  disabilities,  or  scandals. 

Was  there  a  single  other  community,  State,  province,  county, 
or  town  in  Christendom,  numbering  the  victims  of  the  delusion  by 
scores,  hundreds,  or  thousands,  that  signified  its  relief  from  a 
dismal  superstition  by  either  of  these  penitential  or  compensatory 
acts? 


INDEX. 


A. 


AARON  and  Moses,  kissing  each 
other,  Church  and  State,  221. 

Abenaquis,  the,  366. 

Abrara,  call  of,  182. 

Adam,  "  a  public  person,"  141. 

Adamites,  sect  of,  106. 

Adams,  John,  242. 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  on  Roger  Williams, 
297. 

Agents,  diplomatic,  of  Massachu- 
setts  to  England,  484,  498,  516,  524, 
530;  instructions  to,  536. 

Agreement  of  adventurers,  at  Cam 
bridge,  Eng.,  49. 

Agricola,  John,  founder  of  Antino- 
mians,  322. 

Allegiance  to  England,  discussion  on, 
497. 

Anabaptists,  rise  in  Germany,  375 ; 
early  fanaticism  of,  385 ;  proceed 
ings  and  law  against,  381 ;  discon 
tent,  386 ;  at  Plymouth,  387.  See 
Baptists. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  on  the  Puritan 
Commonwealth,  198,  241. 

Antinomian  controversy  in  Massa 
chusetts,  300-362  ;  effects  of,  350  ; 
recovery  and  reconciliation,  355. 

Antinomians,  Sectaries,  rise  in  Ger 
many,  322,  360 ;  consequences  to 
other  sectaries,  359. 

Apostles'  Creed,  the,  80. 

Apostolical  Succession,  denied  to  be 
a  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  100. 

Apparel,  Massachusetts  law  against 
rich,  263. 


"  Arbella,"  the,  56. 

Archer,  Rev.  J.,  made  freeman  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  51. 

Ark,  Noah's,  a  child's  toy,  165. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  letter  from,  on  the 
Quakers  in  Rhode  Island,  457. 

Aspinwall,  William,  deacon  of  First 
Church,  Boston,  58. 

Aspinwall,  William,  Antinomian,  dis 
franchised  and  banished,  334  ;  his 
apology  and  restoration,  355. 

Augustine,  152. 

Auricular  confession,  69. 

Austin,  Mary,  a  Quaker,  arrival  and 
treatment  in  Boston,  408,  434. 


B. 


BACKUS,  ISAAC,  historian  of  the  Bap 
tists,  389. 

Bailey,  Scotch  Presbyterian,  on  the 
New  England  churches,  212,  293. 

Banishment  from  Massachusetts,  its 
meaning,  232,  326. 

Baptism,  infant,  its  administration, 
71  ;  the  rite  in  the  Church  of 
Rome,  104 ;  the  cross  in,  Puritan 
scruple,  104 ;  Puritan  view  of,  205 ; 
Dr.  Jacob  on  the  rite,  376 ;  founded 
on  tradition,  not  Scripture,  376 ; 
Westminster  Confession  on,  377 ; 
Court's  proceedings,  405. 

Baptists,  their  rise  in  Massachusetts, 
380,  404 ;  law  and  proceedings 
against,  404;  church  in  Boston, 
405.  See  Anabaptists. 

Barclay's  "  Apology  for  the  Qua 
kers,"  419. 


566 


INDEX. 


Baxter,  Richard,  on  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
328  ;  on  the  Quakers,  418. 

"  Believers'  baptism,"  897,  404. 

Bellingham,  deputy-governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  479. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  of  Virginia, 
on  education,  255. 

Besse's  "  Sufferings  of  the  Quakers," 
419. 

Bible,  the  first  English,  102  ;  revision 
of,  134 ;  its  peculiar  estimate  and 
use  by  the  Puritans,  81,  125;  a 
substitute  for  the  church  as  "  the 

*  Word  of  God,"  127 ;  popular  en 
thusiasm  for,  128 ;  Westminster 
Confession  on,  129,  160;  value  and 
use  of,  130 ;  inspiration  of,  131 ; 
modified  estimate  of,  135 ;  in  the 
Puritan  home,  165 ;  the  basis  of 
the  Massachusetts  government, 
174,  536,  538. 

Biblical  Commonwealth,  the  Massa 
chusetts  theocracy,  scheme  of,  22, 
167,  525,  536,  538. 

Bishop,  George,  his  "  New  England 
Judged,"  409,  419,  446. 

Bishops,  Lord,  Puritan  hostility  to, 
88. 

Blackstone,  William,  land  granted 
to,  231. 

Bolles,  Joseph,  his  "Spirit  of  the 
Martyrs,"  quoted,  43. 

"  Booke  of  Generall  Laws  and  Liber 
ties  of  Massachusetts,"  514. 

Boston  made  capital  of  Massachu 
setts,  2 ;  meetings  there,  3 ; 
changes  in  original  area,  4,  5 ;  so 
cial  and  political  changes  in,  6,  7  ; 
foreign  elements  in,  9 ;  sects  and 
churches,  10 ;  early  government, 
12.  See  Church. 

"  Bostoneers,"  Randolph's  account 
of,  529. 

Bradford,  governor  of  Plymouth,  152, 
273,  369. 

Bradstreet,  338;  agent  of  Court  to 
England,  484. 

Brewster,  Elder  William,  273. 

Brewster,  Mary,  a  Quaker  enthusiast, 
488. 

Brend,  William,  condemned  Quaker, 
418 ;  goes  away,  442. 


Bridges,  magistrate,  390. 
Brown,  John,  on  Quakerism,  418. 
Browne,  John  and  Samuel,  59. 
Bulkeley,  Elder,  of  Concord,  330. 
Burden,   Ann,    Quaker,  in    Boston, 

440. 
Burnet,  Bishop,  quoted,  70;  on  Sir 

Henry  Vane,  328. 
Bunyan,  John,  121. 
Burrough,  Rev.  George,  147. 
Burroughs,  Edward,  his  answer   to 

Roger  Williams,  418 ;    intercedes 

for  Quakers  with  Charles  II.,  475, 

478. 
Burnyeat,  John,  Quaker,  at  Salem, 

490. 
Bushnell,  Dr.  Horace,  quoted,  519. 


C. 


CALENDAR,  Church,  of  the  year,  108, 
119. 

Calvin,  on  Common  Prayer,  108  ;  on 
infant  damnation,  149. 

Calvinism,  logical  deductions  from, 
137,  149. 

Cambridge,  England,  meeting  and 
agreement  at,  of  adventurers  for 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  49. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  Court  at, 
323  ;  synod  at,  329. 

Canada,  the  French  in,  363. 

Canadians,  French,  in  Massachusetts, 
15. 

Card-playing,  law  against,  259. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  on  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
328. 

Carr,  Sir  Robert,  royal  commissioner 
to  Massachusetts,  510. 

Cart wright,  George,  royal  commis 
sioner  to  Massachusetts,  510. 

Cathedrals,  English,  117. 

Chancery,  suit  against  Massachusetts 
Charter,  492. 

"Charity,  Model  of  Christian,"  by 
Governor  Winthrop,  56. 

Charles  I.,  fast  day  proposed,  for  his 
execution,  515. 

Charles  II.  and  a  Quaker,  423 ;  ad 
dress  of  Massachusetts  to,  on  his 
restoration,  474 ;  on  Quakers,  483  ; 


INDEX. 


567 


letter  to  the  Court,  479 ;  Court's 
reply,  483 ;  his  second  letter,  au 
thorizing  "a  sharp  law"  against 
the  Quakers,  486  ;  on  the  Charter, 
502 ;  requires  changes  in  law,  and 
the  allowance  of  common  prayer, 
503  ;  anticipates  measures  of 
George  III ,  527  ;  death  of,  541. 

Charlestown,  first  church  gathered  at, 
58. 

Charter  of  governor  and  company  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  transfer  of, 
46 ;  administration  under,  228-326  ; 
rights  conferred  by,  229  ;  different 
constructions  of,  —  claims  of  the 
Court,  —  proceedings  under,  230, 
Governor  Winthrop  on,  239  ;  Judge 
Parker  on,  243  ;  claims  under,  428, 
525,  536,  538;  downfall  of,  492- 
541 ;  causes  of,  500-502 ;  contest 
over,  with  Charles  II.,  520,  526; 
vacated,  542 ;  consequences  of,  543. 

Chauncy,  Charles,  President  of  Har 
vard  College,  400. 

Child,  Robert,  and  others,  petition 
and  remonstrance,  204. 

Christison,  Winlock,  Quaker,  in  Bos 
ton,  condemned, —  departs  volun 
tarily,  471. 

Christmas,  law  against  keeping,  122, 
258,  516;  repealed,  531. 

Church  of  England,  parting  address 
to  the,  53.  • 

Church  of  England  at  the  Reforma 
tion,  reconstruction  of,  compro 
mise,  78,  87. 

Church,  before  the  Reformation,  the 
priesthood  in,  127. 

Church,  Puritan  view  of  it,  scriptural, 
103. 

Church,  First,  of  Boston,  formed, 
covenant  of,  58 ;  distractions  in, 
319 ;  present  to  Governor  Win 
throp,  355. 

Church  discipline,  Puritan,  209. 

Church,  "a  particular,"  Winthrop's 
view  of,  103. 

Church  membership,  and  the  fran 
chise,  201  ;  objections  to,  209. 

Circumcision,  and  infant  baptism, 
378. 

Clarendon,  Chancellor,  508. 


Clark,  Mary,  Quaker,  in  Boston,  441. 

Clarke,  Dr.  John,  348 ;  pastor  of 
Baptist  church  in  Newport,  388; 
his  character,  389  ;  his  "  111  Newes 
from  New  England,"  389 ;  visits 
Boston  and  Lynn,  390;  arrested, 
391;  imprisoned,  392;  fine  paid 
for  him,  392 ;  denied  a  public  dis 
cussion,  393;  returns  to  Newport, 
394. 

Clergy,  "  the  inferior,"  89 ;  the  early 
Christian,  96. 

Coddington,  William,  324 ;  banished, 
339,  354,  456. 

Coggeshall,  John,  deputy,  334. 

Colburn,  W.,  deputy,  339. 

College,  Harvard,  255,  395;  account 
of,  for  Charles  II.,  518. 

Collins,  William,  fined  and  banished, 
352. 

Commissioners  for  New  England 
Colonies,  369,  374  ;  Massachusetts 
Court  writes  to,  on  Quakers,  454. 

Commissioners,  parliamentary,  to 
Massachusetts,  497. 

Commissioners,  royal,  to  Massachu 
setts,  510. 

Common  Prayer,  Book  of,  Puritan 
objections  to,  103,  116,  120  ; 
Charles  II.  requires  its  allowance, 
503,  513,  526. 

Commonwealth,  a  Biblical,  its  form, 
basis,  and  administration,  167-199 ; 
scheme  of,  167 ;  Puritan,  198. 

"  Commonwealth,"  title  to  be 
dropped,  515. 

Complaints  in  England  against  Mas 
sachusetts,  501. 

Confession,  the  Westminster,  Bible, 
and  creed,  129,  142. 

Congregational  model  of  New  Eng 
land  churches,  59,  103. 

Conscience,  scruples  of,  112;  liberty 
of,  32,  510,  526. 

Copeland,  John,  Quaker,  in  Boston, 
441,  445. 

Court,  General,  of  Massachusetts, 
contest  with  royal  commissioners, 
510. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts  Bay  Company,  resigns, 
51. 


568 


INDEX. 


Crandall,  John,  Anabaptist,  389. 

Cranmer,  Archbishop,  English  Bi 
ble,  102  ;  on  holy  days,  109. 

Creed  of  Puritanism,  140,  144. 

Cromwell,  friend  of  Roger  Williams, 
269 ;  on  Sir  Henry  Vane,  328. 

Cross,  sign  of,  Puritan  scruples  of, 
104,  105. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  106 ;  his  "  Milk 
for  Babes,"  217  ;  his  controversies 
with  Roger  Williams,  Wheel 
wright,  Vane,  and  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son,  317,  324,  331,  345,  346,  350. 

Cotton,  John,  Jr.,  271. 

Convocation,  houses  of,  69;  on  holy 
days  and  saints'  days,  110. 

Covenant,  God's,  with  man,  141. 

Covenant  of  First  Church,  Boston, 
58. 

Covenants  of  grace  and  works,  155, 
208,  303. 

Council  for  New  England,  45. 


D. 


D'AILLEBOUST,  Governor  of  Canada, 
367. 

Dancing,  Rev.  John  Cotton,  on,  187. 

D'Aulnay,  his  visit  to  Boston,  365. 

Davenport,  Rev.  John,  on  govern 
ment,  186;  sermon,  329;  on  the 
Quakers,  459. 

Deacons,  chosen  in  First  Church, 
Boston,  58 ;  not  an  order  in  the 
ministry,  86 ;  Congregational,  87, 
99 ;  Dr.  G.  A.  Jacob,  on,  93-96. 

Degeneracy,  charges  of,  42 ;  decay 
of  primitive  spirit,  540. 

Deputies  and  magistrates,  variances 
between,  540. 

Diaries,  Puritan,  152. 

Disarming  and  banishment  of  Anti- 
nomians,  334,  340. 

Discipline,  Puritan  church,  216. 

Dissensions  in  Massachusetts,  500. 

Dissenters  in  England,  64,  506,  508. 

Dowdney,  Richard,  Quaker,  in  Bos 
ton,  441. 

Downing,  Emanuel,  48. 

Doyle,  his  "  English  in  America," 
quoted,  167,  236,  335;  on  the 
Quakers,  475,  477. 


Dudley,  Gov.  Thomas,  49,  233  ;  vari 
ance  with  Winthrop,  311,  338;  vis 
ited  by  Father  Druillette,  368. 

Dudley,  Gov.  Joseph,  agent,  his  ill 
repute,  533,  535,  540,  541. 

Druillette,  Father  Gabriel,  his  diplo 
matic  visit  to  Massachusetts,  363- 
374 ;  his  entertainment,  368 ;  visits 
Governor  Dudley,  368;  Governor 
Bradford,  369  ;  the  Apostle  Eliot, 
370  ;  Governor  Endicott,  370. 

Dummer,  magistrate  and  deputy, 
324. 

Dunster,  Henry,  arrives  in  Boston, 
394;  President  of  Harvard  Col 
lege,  character  and  services,  395; 
dissents  on  infant  baptism,  396 ; 
protests,  and  is  put  under  disci 
pline,  396;  magistrates  interpose, 
397 ;  resigns  office,  398 ;  admon 
ished  by  Court,  399 ;  his  second 
resignation,  400 ;  his  letter  of 
withdrawal,  ill-treatment,  402 ; 
removes  to  Scituate,  —  his  death, 
interment,  and  monument,  402. 

Dutch,  the,  at  Manhattan,  511. 

Dyer,  Mary,  Antinomian  and 
Quaker,  440,  461 ;  condemned  and 
reprieved,  462, 464  ;  comes  a  fourth 
time,  467 ;  is  executed,  her  con 
stancy  and  heroism,  470. 

Dyer,  William,  his  petition  for  his 
wife,  468. 


E. 


ECONOMY,  early,  in  Massachusetts, 
12. 

Education,  public,  in  Massachusetts, 
13,  255,  518. 

Edward  VI.,  reform  under,  75  ;  ser 
vice-book,  102.  ' 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  150. 

Edwards,  Thomas,  his  "  Gangreena," 
420. 

Elders,  the  Puritan,  in  Massachusetts, 
influence  and  functions  of,  advis 
ers,  not  legislators,  188,  194,  275, 
321,  482,  497,  546. 

"  Elect,"  the  Puritan,  142. 

Elector  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  visited 
by  Quakers,  423. 


INDEX. 


569 


Eliot,  Rev.  John,  under  discipline, 
149 ;  visited  by  Father  Druillette, 
370. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  in  the  Reforma 
tion,  100. 

Endicott,  Gov.  John,  at  Salem,  46 ; 
letter  of,  146  ;  mutilates  the  king's 
colors,  282  ;  in  the  trial  of  Wheel 
wright,  323,  338  ;  visited  by  Father 
Druillette,  370;  in  the  Court 
against  Baptists,  392 ;  Quakers, 
436  :  his  death,  510. 

England,  Church  of,  at  the  Reforma 
tion,  68,  76  ;  relation  of  the  Non 
conformists  to,  63-124. 

Enthusiasts  and  fanatics,  after  the 
Reformation,  105. 

Episcopal  denomination,  scheme  of, 
for  "  Christian  Unity,"  549. 

Established  Church  in  England,  77; 
favors  to,  507. 

Evelyn,  John,  visits  Quakers  in 
prison,  426. 

Excommunication  in  Puritan  church, 
210. 


F. 


"  FALL  OF  MAN,"  the,  141. 

Fanatical  Sects  at  the  Reformation, 
385. 

Fast  Days',  Puritan,  160. 

Featley,  Daniel,  his  "  Dippers  Dipt/' 
420. 

Fire,  disastrous,  in  Boston,  528. 

Fisher,  Mary,  Quaker,  in  Boston, 
434 ;  her  sufferings  in  England,  and 
history,  435;  her  imprisonment, 
treatment,  and  banishment,  440. 

Fleet,  Winthrop's,  to  Boston,  52. 

Foster,  William,  banished,  231. 

Fox,  George,  his  Journal  and  Let 
ters,  415;  his  testimony  to  his 
call  and  mission,  421 ;  organizer  of 
the  Friends,  or  Quakers,  his  prin 
ciples,  424  ;  "  Leather  Breeches," 
423  ;  sufferings,  425  ;  visits  Amer 
ica,  491. 

Franchise  in  Massachusetts.  See 
Freemen. 

Freemen  of  the  Company  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  election  of,  200  ;  re 


quired  to  be  church  members, 
201;  oath  of,  202;  numbers  of, 
203 ;  church  membership,  how 
secured,  205  ;  the  King  requires  a 
change,  503  ;  made,  505. 

"  Friars,"  in  Boston,  365. 

"Friends."     See  Quakers. 

"  Fundamental^  "  of  the  Massachu 
setts,  204,  208. 

G. 

GAGER,  Deacon  of  First  Church, 
Boston,  58. 

Gardiner,  Sir  Christopher,  47. 

Gardner,  Horred,  Quaker,  442. 

Gibbens,  Sarah,  Quaker,  442,  446. 

Gibbons,  Major  General  Edward, 
entertains  Father  Druillette,  368. 

Gideon's  Fleece,  182. 

God,  Puritan  view  of,  126,  139. 

Goffe,  the  regicide,  demanded  and 
sheltered,  514. 

Gorges,  his  dispute  with  Massachu 
setts,  47,  521. 

Governor-general  for  New  England, 
proposed  by  Randolph  to  the 
King,  523. 

Greensmith,  Stephen,  fined,  321. 

H. 

HALLAM,  HENRY,  on  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
328. 

Harris,  Thomas,  Quaker,  in  Boston, 
442. 

Harvard  College,  395,  518. 

Hat,  the,  its  significance  for  Quakers, 
423,  443,  463. 

Hatch,  Edwin,  his  "  Growth  of  Chris 
tian  Institutions,"  101. 

Hathorne,  magistrate,  against  Qua 
kers,  441. 

Haugh,  magistrate  and  deputy,  324. 

Healths,  law  against  drinking,  261. 

Heathen,  the  fate  of  the,  142,  144. 

Hell,  torments  of,  142. 

"  Hell  Broke  Loose,"  a  tract  against 
Quakers,  by  Thos.  Underbill,  417. 

Henry  VIII.,  his  quarrel  with  the 
Pope,  head  of  the  English  Church, 
a  good  Roman  Catholic,  67  ;  not  a 
religious  reformer,  74. 


570 


INDEX. 


Heredity  of  Puritanism,  7. 

Hibbens,  magistrate,  371. 

Hierarchy,  Puritan  objections  to,  66, 
83;  titles  of,  114. 

Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  55. 

Hodgstone,  Robert,  Quaker,  at  Long 
Island,  445. 

Holder,  Christopher,  Quaker,  441, 
445,  467. 

Holmes,  Obadiah,  Anabaptist,  388 ; 
scourged,  394. 

Homilies,  books  of,  69. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Richard,  on  Apostoli 
cal  Succession,  100. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  conference 
with  Roger  Williams,  290;  at  Cam 
bridge  Synod,  330. 

Howe,  Rev.  John,  121. 

Hudson  Bay  Company's  charter,  238. 

Huguenots,  immigration  to  Boston,  9. 

Humphrey,  John,  49,  233. 

Humphreys,  Robert,  counsel  for 
Massachusetts,  541. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  with  husband 
and  children,  arrives  in  Boston, 
305 ;  admitted  to  Boston  church, 
306;  her  friendly  services  to  her 
sex,  306  ;  holds  women's  meetings 
criticising  ministers,  307  ;  her  par 
tiality  to  Mr.  Cotton,  308  ;  Win- 
throp's  opinion  of  her,  312 ;  her 
opinions  and  teachings,  313 ;  her 
arraignment,  335;  is  banished, 
336  ;  is  admonished  by  the  church, 
342  ;  excommunicated,  344 ;  goes 
to  Rhode  Island,  348;  further 
church  discipline,  350 ;  tragic 
death,  354  ;  posterity,  357. 

Hutchinson,  Edward,  357;  Francis, 
352,  353 ;  Samuel,  356. 

Hutchinson,  Gov.  Thomas,  357. 

Hutchinson,  William,  member  o£ 
Boston  Church,  freeman  and  dep 
uty,  306;  his  character,  banish 
ment,  and  death,  353. 


I. 


IDEAL  schemes  of  government,  170. 

Immigration  of  Irish    and   French 

Canadians  to  Massachusetts,  15. 


Indians,  sale  of  liquor  to,  260  ;  their 
rights,  2744  278 ;  at  Harvard  Col 
lege,  518  ;  converted  and  civilized, 
their  towns,  518,  519. 

Inspiration  of  the  Bible,  131. 

Intolerance,  Puritan,  peculiar  form 
of,  544. 

Ipswich,  rival  to  Boston,  1. 

Irish  immigration  to  Massachusetts, 
15. 


J. 


JACOB,  Dr.  G.  A.,  his  "Ecclesiastical 
Polity  of  the  New  Testament," 
quoted,  93,  96,  99,  100 ;  on  infant 
baptism,  376. 

Jacob's  dream,  182. 

James  I.,  his  relation  to  the  Papal 
Church,  91. 

James  II.  proclaimed  in  Boston,  541 ; 
Court's  letter  to,  538. 

Jennison,  deputy  from  Ipswich,  339. 

Jesuits,  law  against,  in  Massachu 
setts,  364. 

Jewish  synagogues  in  Boston,  10. 

Johnson,  Capt.  Edward,  his  "Zion's 
Saviour,"  quoted,  3;  on  transpor 
tation  of  ships  and  people  to  Bos 
ton,  249. 

Johnson,  Isaac,  49,  58,  233. 

Jonson,  Ben,  his  "  Bartholomew 
Fayre,"  121. 

Judas,  assigned  a  "  bishopric,"  89. 

Judges,  the  Book  of,  148. 

Judgment,  right  of  private,  130. 

Justification,  Puritan  view  of,  157, 
301. 

K. 

KENNEBEC,Plymouth  trucking-house 

at,  366. 
King,  Mrs  ,  Anabaptist,  at  Lynn,  381. 


LATOUR  visits  Boston,  365. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  270,  426. 
Laws,  Massachusetts,  examined  by 
royal  commissioners,  514. 


INDEX. 


571 


Lay  conferences,  82. 

Laymen  recognized  in  church  gov 
ernment,  82,  113,  115,  120,  189. 

Lechford,  Thomas,  on  administration 
in  Massachusetts,  240. 

Leckey,  his  "  History  of  Rational 
ism,"  40. 

Leddra,  William,  Quaker,  442  ;  exe 
cuted,  470. 

Legalism,  law  of  works,  156. 

Legislation,  Puritan,  195,  251,  254. 

Leigh,  Lord,  his  visit  to  Boston,  326. 

Leverett,  Governor,  521. 

Leyden,  John  of,  347. 

Liberalism,  early,  in  Massachusetts, 
7. 

Liberty  of  conscience,  32,  526. 

Lincoln,  daughters  of  the  Earl  of,  49. 

Liquors,  legislation  on,  259. 

"  Lord  Bishops,"  Puritan  dislike  of, 
88,  119. 

Lord's  Day,  legislation  on,  16. 

Lord's  Prayer,  scruples  of  Puritans, 
157. 

Loyalty,  Puritan,  to  God,  not  to 
kings,  139. 


M. 

MACAULAT,  on  Church  of  England 
at  Reformation,  73  ;  on  Fox's  Jour 
nal,  415,  424. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  J.,  on  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  328. 

Magistrates,  Puritan,  "  ministers  of 
God,"  184. 

Maine,  Province  of,  47,  521 ;  Massa 
chusetts'  purchase  of,  525. 

Man,  fall  of,  141. 

Marten,  Ambrose,  disciplined,  232. 

Mason  and  Gorges,  disputes  with 
Massachusetts,  47,  525,  530,  533. 

Mass,  service  of  the,  101. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  its 
charter  as  a  trading  company,  46  ; 
proposed  transfer,  with  adminis 
tration  here,  discussed,  agreement, 
48 ;  original  members  of  the  Com 
pany,  49. 

Mather,  Cotton,  on  Roger  Williams, 
297. 


Mathers,  Increase  and  Cotton,  their 
diaries,  153. 

Maverick,  Sam.,  royal  commissioner 
to  Massachusetts,  510. 

"  Mayflower,"  the,  52. 

Mayhew,  Thomas,  at  Martha's  Vine 
yard,  445. 

Mayor  of  Boston,  10. 

Medievalism,  Puritan  rejection  of, 
545. 

Meetings,  public,  in  Boston,  2. 

Milton,  John,  Puritan,  80,  121;  son 
net  on  Vane,  196 ;  friend  of  Roger 
Williams,  269. 

Ministers  in  the  country  towns  of 
Massachusetts,  14. 

Ministry,  parity  of  the,  83 ;  not  three 
orders,  84. 

Mitchell,  minister  of  Cambridge,  396, 
402. 

Mitre,  Bishop  Seabury's,  123. 

Moody,  Lady,  at  Lynn,  Anabaptist, 
381. 

More,  Henry,  on  the  Quakers,  426. 

More's  "  Utopia,"  170. 

Mormons,  the,  170. 

Morton,  Thomas,  47,  230. 

Moses  and  Aaron,  Church  and  State, 
221. 

Muggleton,  Ludwick,  his  books, 
427. 

Munster,  fanatics  of,  347,  387. 


N.    . 

NARRAGANSETT    Club,  publications, 

268. 
Navigation  Laws,  in  Massachusetts, 

514,  521,  534. 
Negro-plots,  in  New  York,  victims  of, 

563. 

Newbury,  church  in,  214. 
"  New  England's  First  Fruits,"  400. 
New  Hampshire  and  John  Mason,  47, 

521,  522. 
Newhouse,  Thomas,  Quaker,  breaks 

bottles,  447. 
Newman,  Rev.  Samuel,  of  Seekonk, 

his  Concordance,  388. 
Nicolls,  Col.  Richard,  royal  commis 
sioner,  510. 


572 


INDEX. 


Nicolson,  Joseph,  and  wife,  con 
demned  Quakers,  depart,  473. 

Noah's  Ark,  child's  toy,  165. 

Nonconformists,  their  relation  to  the 
Church  of  England,  63-124;  dis 
tinguished  from  the  Separatists, 
63  ;  on  church  holidays,  110  ;  prin 
ciples,  113. 

Norton,  Humphrey,  Quaker,  his 
tract,  444. 

Norton,  Rev.  John,  invited  to  Boston 
Church,  223;  answers  Mr.  Pyn- 
chon's  book,  224;  Quakers,  438, 
442 ;  described  by  a  Quaker,  446, 
463;  sermon,  467;  agent  of  the 
Court  to  England,  484. 

Nowell,  Increase,  49 ;  chosen  elder, 
58. 

Nowell,  Samuel,  agent  of  Massachu 
setts,  530. 

Nye,  Rev.  Philip,  freeman  of  the 
Company,  51. 


O. 


OATH,  the  freeman's,  202  ;  the  resi 
dent's,  284. 

Owen,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  invited  to  Bos 
ton  Church,  224. 


P. 


PAGITT'S  "Heresiography,"  379,  420. 

Painter,  Mr.,  of  Hingham,  Anabap 
tist,  383. 

Papacy,  the,  in  England,  66-69. 

Parity  and  equality  in  the  ministry, 
83. 

Parker,  Chief  Justice  Joel,  on  the 
Charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company,  243-245. 

Patent  of  Massachusetts  secreted, 
504. 

Patents  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I., 
276. 

Patrick's,  St.,  day  in  Boston,  14. 

Patristic  divinity,  79. 

Penn,  William,  editor  of  Fox's  jour 
nal,  415,  419  ;  mode  of  life,  490. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  on  the  present  of 
masts  to  the  king,  from  Massa 
chusetts,  517. 


Perrott,  John,  Quaker,  at  Salem, 
489. 

Persecution  for  religion,  Roger  Wil 
liams  on,  268,  494. 

Peter,  Hugh,  293;  arrives  in  Boston, 
310 ;  his  mediation  between  Win- 
throp  and  Dudley,  311 ;  rebukes 
Vane,  318,  338. 

Philip's  War,  520,  524,  528. 

Plantations,  council  for,  sends  Ran 
dolph,  521. 

Plato's  Republic,  170. 

Plymouth  court,  the  Anabaptists, 
387 ;  Quakers,  455. 

Plymouth  truck-house  at  the  Ken.- 
nebec,  366. 

Polemical  controversy,  300. 

Powell,  Michael,  and  the  Second 
Church  of  Boston,  223. 

Prayer  Book,  first  English,  102. 

Prayer,  common,  108,  116,  120,  503, 
513,  526. 

Prayer,  the  Lord's,  157 ;  in  Puritan 
worship,  158,  161. 

Prayers  for  the  dead,  69. 

Presbyterianism,  dread  of,  in  Massa 
chusetts,  220. 

Presbyterianism  on  Apostolic  Suc 
cession,  90. 

Presents  of  Massachusetts  to  the 
king,  517. 

Primitive  Christianity,  78. 

"Progressive  theology,"  149. 

Providence  and  Roger  Williams, 
299. 

Puritan  scheme  of  government  in 
Massachusetts,  22,  29 ;  theory  of, 
30;  criticised,  31-38  ;  severity,  40; 
principles,  113 ;  meeting-houses, 
118;  odious  elements,  173 ;  poli 
tics,  175;  term  of,  542;  results, 
545 ;  heritage  of,  546. 

Puritan  loyalty  to  the  creed,  150. 

Puritan  ministers,  the,  188,  194,  275, 
321,  482,  497,  546,  547. 

Puritanism,  in  the  English  Church, 
origin  of,  65,  73. 

Puritans  and  Quakers  confronted, 
409. 

Pynchon,  William,  50;  magistrate  of 
Springfield,  198  ;  proceedings 
against  his  heretical  book,  224. 


INDEX. 


573 


Q. 


QUAKER  literature,  two  classes  of, 
413,  414,  419. 

Quakers,  modern,  charged  with  de 
generacy,  43;  intrusion  of,  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  408-491 ;  arrival,  408; 
consternation,  409  ;  dread  of  them, 
411,  429-433  ;  first  known  by  their 
oddities,  412 ;  distribute  tracts,  416 ; 
books  for  and  against  their  prin 
ciples,  417;  later  writers,  418; 
confounded  with  fanatics,  420  ; 
their  sufferings  in  England,  425, 
430,  453,  485  ;  their  "  Inspira 
tions,"  430;  their  constancy  and 
fidelity,  431;  first  two  in  Boston, 
434  ;  imprisoned  and  banished, 
436;  proceedings  of  the  magis 
trates,  437  ;  more  arrivals,  438 ; 
first  law  against  them,  439 ;  suf 
ferers,  440;  their  theology,  443; 
abusive  tract,  445  ;  sympathizers, 
447  ;  more  laws,  448  ;  citizen's  pe 
tition,  449;  manifesto,  450;  capi 
tal  law  proposed,  451  ;  opposition 
to,  453 ;  passed  by  a  majority  of 
one,  454 ;  in  Rhode  Island,  457 ; 
Roger  Williams  on,  458  ;  seven 
under  condemnation  voluntarily 
go  off,  460  ;  two  executions,  463 ; 
Court's  declaration,  465 ;  another 
execution,  470  ;  prisoners  agree  to 
go  off,  472 ;  popular  opposition, 
472;  jail  delivery,  473;  Court's 
address  to  Charles  II.,  474;  new 
law,  476  ;  not  opposed  to  civil 
•  law,  476;  the  king's  letter,  479; 
effect  of,  479,  487  ;  elders  advise 
the  Court,  482,  483;  Court  re 
plies  to  the  king,  484 ;  new  laws, 
486,  489 ;  the  king's  second  letter, 
authorizing  measures  of  severity, 
486 ;  extravagances  of  three  Qua 
ker  women,  488 ;  scourging  of, 
,  488 ;  spirit  of  final  toleration,  489 ; 
variances  among  themselves,  490, 
532. 

Quo  warranto  against  Massachusetts 
Charter,  529 ;  threatened,  532 ;  is 
sued,  541. 


R. 


RADCLIFFE,  PHILIP,  47. 

Randolph,  Mrs.,  in  South  Church, 
531,  551. 

Randolph,  Edward,  sent  to  Massa 
chusetts  as  messenger  of  Council 
for  Plantations,  521 ;  enemy  of 
Massachusetts,  makes  discord  and 
mischief,  522 ;  his  representations 
to  the  king,  523,  529 ;  watches  the 
agents  of  Massachusetts,  524;  ap 
pointed  collector  and  surveyor  for 
New  England,  527  ;  insults  to  him, 
530;  his  frequent  voyages,  534; 
his  triumph,  542. 

Ranters,  the,  427,  456. 

Rationalism,  progress  and  effect  of, 
40,  42. 

Record  Commissioners  of  Boston, 
11. 

Records  of  Governor  and  Company 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  fulness  and 
value  of,  168. 

Redemption,  method  of,  143. 

Reeves,  Joftn,  his  books  proscribed 
in  Massachusetts,  427. 

Reformation,  the,  in  England,  stages 
of,  68,  76 ;  substitutes  the  Bible  for 
the  Church,  127. 

Regicides,  Whalley  and  Goffe,  de 
manded  by  the  king,  but  sheltered 
here,  513,  514,  529. 

Religion,  compulsory  support  of,  in 
Massachusetts,  213,  215. 

Remonstrance  to  Massachusetts 
Court,  334. 

Revelation,  method  of,  180. 

Revision  of  English  Bible,  133. 

Rhode  Island  an  ill  neighbor  to 
Massachusetts,  442;  Quakers  in, 
456  ;  Arnold's  letter  on,  457. 

Richards,  John,  agent  of  Massachu 
setts,  530,  535. 

Robinson,  William,  Quaker,  exe 
cuted  in  Boston,  463. 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  power  of, 
in  England,  72 ;  Puritan  hatred  of, 
83. 

Roman  Catholic  churches  in  Bos 
ton,  10. 


574 


INDEX. 


S. 


SABBATH,  the  Puritan,  18;  legisla 
tion  on,  225,  227. 

Sacerdotalism,  Puritan  protest 
against,  545 ;  reversion  to,  550. 

Saints'  days  in  the  Roman  Church, 
108,  119. 

Salem,  settlement  at,  46;  town  and 
church,  286;  Roger  Williams 
teacher  of,  280  ;  witchcraft  in,  556. 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  49,  248,  494. 

Saltonstall,  Robert,  248. 

"  Sanctification,"  Puritan  view  of, 
156,  303. 

Satan,  an  enemy  of  education,  256. 

Savage,  Hon.  James,  357. 

Savage,  Major  Thomas,  357. 

Scholars  and  divines,  English,  in  New 
England,  107,  113. 

Schools,  public,  system  of,  in  Massa 
chusetts,  13,  255,  256,  257,  518. 

Scriptures  the  sole  authority  for 
Puritans,  79 ;  quoted  in  legisla 
tion,  341,364,  375,466,  524. 

Seabury,  consecrated  Bishop  in  Scot 
land,' 123;  mitre,  123. 

Sectaries,  after  the  Reformation,  105, 
375. 

Semperingham,  England,  48. 

Separatists,  relations  to  the  Church 
of  England,  63. 

Sergeants,  with  halberds,  attend  the 
governor,  324. 

Service-book,  English,  102. 

Sewall,  History  of  the  Quakers,  419. 

Sewall,  Judge  Samuel,  119,  147,  464, 
531. 

Shattuck,  Samuel,  Quaker,  banished, 
441 ;  brings  a  letter  from  Charles 
II.,  received  by  Endicott ;  his  own 
letter  on  the  interview,  479. 

Shepard,  Rev.  Thomas,  of  Cam 
bridge,  330. 

Sin,  original,  141. 

Smith,  Joseph,  his  catalogue  of  books 
on  Quakers,  417. 

Smyth,  John,  banished,  231. 

Solomon's  Soug,  131,  186. 

Southwick,  Laurence  and  Cassandra, 
441,  452. 


Standish,  Miles,  at  the  Kennebec, 
366. 

Starbuck,  Edward,  of  Dover,  Ana 
baptist,  386. 

Stevenson,  Marmaduke,  Quaker,  ex 
ecuted  in  Boston,  463. 

Stoughton,  William,  declines  agency, 
530. 

Sunday,  legislation  on,  15,  18. 

Sumptuary  Laws,  34,  263. 

Swift,  Dean,  on  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
328. 

Synagogues,  Jewish,  in  Boston,  10. 

Synod,  at  Cambridge,  217,  221,  330, 
331,  332-334. 

Supper,  the  Lord's,  71,  95,  101. 


T. 

TEMPLE,  Colonel,  offers  a  harborage 

to  Quakers,  459. 
Thanksgivings,  Puritan,  160. 
"  Thee"  and  "  thou,"  of  the  Quakers, 

423,  490. 
Theocracy,  Massachusetts  scheme  of, 

170,  176  ;  overthrow  of,  542-544. 
Thursday  lecture,  221;  Quakers  at 
tend,  442,  463. 
Tilton,  John,  of  Lynn,  his  wife  an 

Anabaptist,  381. 
Towns,   country,   in  Massachusetts, 

changes    in,   8 ;    inhabitants,    13 ; 

ministers  in,  14;  histories  of,  13. 
Transubstantiation,  70. 
Trinity,  in  the  Westminster  Creed, 

142. 
Truth,  slow  and  difficult  progress  of, 

44. 

U. 

UNCTION,  extreme,  69. 
Underbill,  Capt.  John,  25, 187,  305. 
Underbill,    Thomas,     tract    against 

Quakers,  417. 

Unity,  Christian,  plea  for,  97. 
Upshall,  Nicholas,  sympathizer  with 

Quakers,  fined  and  banished,  437, 

440. 
Upshall,  Mrs.,  her  petition,  438. 


INDEX. 


575 


V. 

"  VALID  ministry/'  a,  98. 

Vane,  Henry,  196,  236;  friend  of 
Roger  Williams,  269 ;  arrives  in 
Boston,  810;  admitted  to  church, 
310;  mediates  between  Winthrop 
and  Dudley,  311 ;  friend  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  chosen  Governor,  315; 
pathetic  scene  in  Court,  316 ;  re 
buked  by  Hugh  Peter,  317;  on 
Wheelwright's  trial,  323,  324 ;  con 
troversy  with  Winthrop,  326  ;  re 
turns  to  England,  326;  friend  of 
Massachusetts  and  the  Indians, 
327;  his  character,  judgments  on, 
328;  execution,  328;  posthumous 
son,  329. 

Vassall,  William,  49. 

Venner,  Thomas,  the  Fifth  Monarchy 
leader,  483? 

Virginia,  compulsory  laws  on  reli 
gion,  234. 

W. 

WALFORD,  THOMAS,  of  Charlestown, 
banished,  230. 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  51 ;  on  making 
laws,  197. 

Wardel,  Mrs.,  of  Hampton,  Quaker, 
488. 

Waugh,  Dorothy,  Quaker,  442,  446. 

Welde,  Mr.  Joseph,  in  charge  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  336. 

Welde,  Elder,  357. 

Westminster  Confession  on  Bible 
and  Creed,  128. 

Whalley,  regicide,  outlawed  and 
sheltered,  513,  514. 

Wheelwright,  Rev.  John,  arrives  in 
Boston,  305;  causes  dissension  in 
the  church,  314;  his  Fast  Day 
sermon,  321 ;  banished,  335 ;  goes 
to  Exeter,  348 ;  petition  for  pardon, 
358  ;  granted,  358 ;  visits  England, 
358;  returns,  his  ministry  and 
death,  359. 

White,  Rev.  John,  Puritan  rector  of 
Dorchester,  50. 

Whitehead,  George,  editor  of  Fox's 
Epistles,  415. 


Whiting,  John,  reply  to  C.  Mather 

on  Quakers,  419,  480. 
Wiggan,  John,  tract  against  Quakers, 
418. 

Wigglesworth,  Michael,  150. 

Williams,  Roger,  on  the  English  Re 
formation,  74  ;  his  character,  267  ; 
his  biographers,  269;  friends  in 
England,  269;  his  early  years, 
270 ;  not  the  founder  of  the  Bap 
tists,  270;  a  Separatist,  271;  not 
a  freeman,  272 ;  call  to  Salem 
church  opposed  by  magistrates, 
272 ;  goes  to  Plymouth,  his  repute 
there,  returns  to  Salem,  273 ;  his 
book  on  the  Patent,  274 ;  com 
plained  of,  275;  withdrawn,  280; 
rights  of  the  Indians,  278 ;  pro 
ceedings  of  Court,  282;  fails  of  his 
promise,  283;  refuses  resident's 
oath,  284 ;  land  case  at  Salem,  286 ; 
writes  "  letters  of  defamation," 
287 ;  withdraws  from  his  church, 
289 ;  goes  off  privately,  290  ;  con 
troversy  with  Cotton,  on  persecu 
tion,  268;  his  Indian  vocabulary, 
269 ;  among  the  Indians,  292;  voy 
age  to  England  for  Charter,  294 ; 
life  in  Providence,  295;  has  leave 
to  embark  from  Boston,  296 ;  kind 
services  toMassachusetts,298;  ban 
ishment  revoked,  298;  death  and 
honors,  299 ;  friend  of  Vane,  327, 
349;  opinion  of  Quaker  litera 
ture,  414;  Quaker  manners,  4o8 ; 
disputation  with  Quakers,  and  an 
swer  to  Fox,  491. 

Wilson,  Deborah,  Quaker,  488. 

Wilson,  John,  pastor  of  First  Church, 
58 ;  in  the  Antinomian  contro 
versy,  321. 

Winslow,  John,  at  Kennebec,  friend 
of  Druillette,  367. 

Winthrop,  John,  member  and  Gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Com 
pany,  founder  of  Massachusetts, 
13 ;  leader  of  the  enterprise,  23 ; 
statues  of,  23 ;  his  character  and 
eminent  virtues,  25  ;  Captain  Un 
derbill's  praise  of  him,  25;  his 
journal.  26;  his  death  and  funeral, 
27  ;  departure  from  England  with 


576 


INDEX. 


fleet,  55;  sermon  on  the  passage, 
56  ;  arrives  in  Boston,  57 ;  his 
"  Particular  Church,"  58, 103, 117 ; 
liis  history,  152,  154;  variance  with 
Roger  Williams,  274,  280;  with 
Dudley,  311 ;  on  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son's  opinions,  313 ;  Boston  church, 
314  ;  variance  with  Vane,  326  ;  on 
the  synod  at  Cambridge,  333 ; 
trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  337 ; 
present  from  Boston  church,  355 ; 
entertains  friars,  365 ;  on  Mary 
Dyer,  440 ;  proposed  mission  to 
England,  498. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  Captain  Under- 


hilPs  letter  to,  25 ;  opposes  capital 
law  against  Quakers,  459;  Rev. 
John  Davenport's  letter  to,  459. 

Wiswall,  Dea.  John,  opposes  capital 
law  against  Quakers,  454. 

Witchcraft,  Salem,  note  on,  556-564. 

Witter,  William,  of  Lynn,  Anabap 
tist,  381 ;  in  Court,  382 ;  visit  to, 
389,  394. 

Women's  meetings,  the  Court  on, 
332 ;  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  Scripture 
warrant  for  them,  337. 

Wood's  "New  England's  Prospect," 
176. 

Worship,  Puritan,  157 


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